Settle (furniture)

A settle is a wooden bench, usually with arms and a high back, long enough to accommodate three or four sitters.

Few English examples of earlier date than the middle of the 16th century are extant; survivals from the Jacobean period are more numerous.

The settle is painted and illustrated with dancing Zodiac signs, and adorned with inlaid pieces of glass crystal and vellum.

In the south and west of the country, settles were often constructed with a heavy open frame of pine, which was morticed and tenoned, with a boarded or panelled backrest.

Around counties Cork and Kerry, settles were often called "racks" and were noted as uncomfortable items of furniture.

Another variation was similar to the chicken coops built into Irish dressers, with the area underneath the seat used to house turkeys or other vulnerable fowl.

[2] Robinson also describes a specimen of a settle and table combination, with a chest in the seat that was made in the 17th century (see right).

The back is raised and drawn forwards to serve as a table top as far as the play of the pegs in the slit allows".