'Licet esse beatis' translates into English as 'it is permitted to be joyful' - the motto of the Warde family, city merchants prominent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Their family's tale is one of entrepreneurship, trade and success. Sir Patience Warde (1628-1696), son of Thomas Warde (d. 1634) of Tanshelf Court, near Pontefract, Yorkshire and Elizabeth Bywater, daughter of William Bywater, mayor of Pontefract, was probably the first of the family to achieve success as a merchant in London, rising to Sheriff and later Lord Mayor of London (1680). His nephew, Sir John Warde (c. 1650-1725) of Hookfield Park, Clay Hill, Epsom, was also a successful merchant, and also Lord Mayor of the city of London (1718) and one of the founding directors of the newly established Bank of England (1694-99) and its Governor from 1701-1702.   His son, also John Warde, continued the family's business and around 1719 married Frances Bristowe, the daughter of fellow city of London merchants. After their marriage, the couple lived in Bruton Street, and in 1731 bought Squerryes Court, Westerham, Kent, a house built in 1681 for Sir Nicholas Crispe, 1st Bt. (1598-1666).

The settee is part of a set, and the incised numbering on the seat rails of this settee (VII and IX) suggests that at least five or even six such double chairback settees were made. The armorial in the centre of each needlework panel illustrates the union between the Warde family (on the left side) and the Bristowe family (on the right). The design reflects popular styles of the early decades of the eighteenth century, may indicate that the set was made to mark the marriage betwen John Warde and Frances Bristowe in around 1719, or possibly as part of a new furnishing scheme following the purchase of Squerryes Court in 1731.

A maker for the settee is not yet known, though the black-painted and part-gilded decoration was popular at that time, it is more usually painted in imitation of Chinese-style decoration, instead of the more European-type of scrolling foliage as seen here. William Turrin, of Bedford St, Covent Garden, supplied furniture including black painted (or 'japanned') chairs and settee at a cost of £234 15s for James Graham, 1st duke of Montrose (1682-1742) around 1718 (Scottish RO, GD 220/6/1192/17, see: https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/turrin-william-1718). For the same Scottish duke, in 1718 the cabinet-maker Richard Moore, at the 'Two Twisted Posts' in St Martin's Lane, provided seat furniture for his house in Bond Street, London, including 'a neat Japanned couch frame' (see https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/moore-richard-1716-20).

The settees were illustrated at Squerryes in Country Life, 27 June 1968, figs. 6 & 7, p. 1754 (fig 6 reproduced here).