Phillip St. George Cocke of Powhatan County, Virginia's Gothic Revival house called Belmead, which still stands on the James River about forty miles above Richmond, was finished by 1848, when the owner purchased this settee as part of a ten-piece parlor suite. The design is attributed to Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892), who designed Belmead, and the construction is attributed to the cabinetmaker William Burns (1805?-1867) and Peter Trainque. The settee features pierced trefoil brackets under the seat rails, spiraling leafage in the crestings, and other foliate details. The crest rail is wide and flattened, and is shaped like a Tudor-arch, and has carved foliate corbels at the sides. The legs have been turned and ringed, and there are pendants beneath the lower back rail. The settee has been repaired, refinished, and reupholstered. It has been suggested that Davis wished to parallel in this set of parlor furniture some of the exterior architectural elements on the facade of the Belmead.