Don't let the bold façade of this leather-covered couch fool you. What appears to be a solid piece of furniture is in fact an eighteenth-century sofa bed. A bed frame pulls out from the interior of the lower case, and the seat back lifts to form a canopy fitted with curtains that enveloped the sleeper in the same manner as a high-post bedstead. George Washington purchased "1 Settee bed and furniture £13" in 1774 from the estate sale of "Belvoir," the home of his neighbors and close friends, George William and Sally Fairfax, and undoubtedly used it as an extra guest bed to accommodate Mount Vernon's many visitors. What became of Washington's settee bed is not known, but this example demonstrates the appearance and mechanics of the unusual form that once stood in the Little Parlor.