A window seat is a miniature sofa without a back, intended to fill the recess of a window. In the latter part of the 18th century, when tall narrow sash windows were almost universal, the window seat was in high favor, and was no doubt in keeping with the formalism of Georgian interiors. It differed much in decorative detail, but little in form. It stood as high from the floor as a chair; the two ends were identical, with a roll-over curve, more or less pronounced. The seats and ends were usually upholstered in rich fabrics which in many cases have remained intact. The legs followed the fashion in chairs and were square and tapered, or, somewhat later, round and reeded. Hepplewhite and the brothers Adam designed many graceful window seats, but they were produced by all the cabinet-makers of the period.
A window seat may also be built into the recess containing a window.
In vehicles, where seats are arranged in rows, a window seat is a seat nearest the window. Seats further from the window may be middle seats or aisle seats.
Famous quotes containing the words window and/or seat:
“If a man was tossed out of a window when an infant, and so made a cripple for life, or scared out of his wits by the Indians, it is regretted chiefly because he was thus incapacitated for—business! I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In New York, pretending to be above the struggle means no seat on the bus and a table next to the kitchen.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)