This couch, originally one of a pair, was designed by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema for use in his studio. It has alternate sides with different pairs of legs, one side in the Egyptian style and the other Pompeian, thus enabling him to use the couch as a prop for many of his paintings depicting scenes of classical life. Although it is not certain when the couch was made it was probably shortly before it was exhibited by Alma-Tadema in the fourth Exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, at the New Gallery, London, in 1893, cat. no. 84. At the Exhibition it was praised by The Studio, "Perhaps the nearest approach thereto is Mr. Tademas's beautiful Studio Seat, but even this, perfect as are its proportions, and cunning as is its fashioning, affects one with a subtle sense of unreality, almost of theatricalism. "(vol. II, 1893, p. 17) He may have commissioned the firm of Johnstone, Norman and Co. to make the couch. His earlier commission for a music room for H.G. Marquand of New York. in 1884 had included furniture after his designs which was made by this firm. Both couches were included in the sale of Alma-Tadema's house and collection, 34 Grove End Road, London, by Hampton & Sons, June 9th 1913, lots 10 and 11, and illustrated in the studio in the frontispiece for the catalogue. According to The Times, June 10th 1913, page 11, the two couches sold for seven guineas each (£7 35p). According to Miss Headley, from whom the Museum purchased the couch, her father bought it at Alma-Tadema's sale but it is not clear whether it was lot 10 or lot 11. Charles Handley-Read, a pioneering collector of High Victorian furniture, gave £100 towards the purchase of the couch by the Museum. The cushion is covered in modern silk similar in pattern to the covers visible on the couches in 1913. This modern silk was presented by the designer Thea Porter, presumably shortly after the couch was acquired, and the cushion was covered in it by the time of the loan of the couch to Sheffield in 1976.