Love seat, vanity. Hope chest, jelly cupboard. All useful pieces from the past that leave us with a fuzzy feeling of nostalgia.
But like today's TV stand, book case and computer desk, they are nothing more than furniture named for the role they played.Many remain in the retailer's arsenal. Others, such as the recamier, metamorphic chair and tete-a-tete, are more elusive.
Clearly, the love seat is the most popular of the early pieces named for origin or function. As the name implies, it was once used by courting couples.
The love seat's intended use went the way of the chaperone. But it is popular with decorators today, according to Ethan Allen Inc., of Danbury, Conn., because it adapts to a variety of spaces.
A pair of love seats often replaces a larger sofa in the living room. One alone can be the ideal size for extra seating in a family kitchen or master bedroom.
The wing chair is another upholstered piece that is aptly named. Winglike panels on the chair back protected against cross-drafts and trapped warmth from the fireplace. All of that is no longer necessary, but the image remains one of coziness.
Likewise, jelly cupboards and pie safes once stored what the housewife cooked. And generations of young women lovingly put their handmade quilts and hand-worked linens into a cedar-lined hope chest for the day someone would ask for their hand.
Today, the notion of waiting to be "married off" is quaint, and few have time to tat. So the Lane Co., which makes 150 styles in 90 finishes, refers to the storage unit as a cedar chest.
"But 43 percent of our customers still refer to them as hope chests," Sean Slack, division vice president, says. "The figure jumps to 55 percent when the customer is between the ages of 14 and 24."
That, he says, is mainly because as young romantics they're interested in tradition.
Among other aptly named pieces still found in the home are the ottoman, from the Ottoman Empire, an early name for Turkey; the vanity, and the campaign chest.
The 19th-century vanity, or dressing table, was a convenient place for a woman to "dress her hair" and otherwise groom herself. It still is, if the bathroom is otherwise occupied. The vanity usually has a matching mirror and a lid that lifts to expose space for cosmetics and toiletries.
Some of the most glamorous vanities are mirrored Art Deco styles dating from the 1920s and '30s.