So the Pottery Barn catalog arrived at my house the other day. I'm not sure why. I haven't bought anything there in a long time, and I don't think my husband ever has; he thought, naturally, that they sold pottery. But two things caught my eye: one, they had some beautiful patio furniture, and two, they were calling it "The Chesapeake Collection."

I've been admiring my neighbors' new porch furniture set and thought I'd take a look at what a chain store that began in Manhattan and is now based in San Francisco thinks the Chesapeake looks like.

I ended up spending a lot longer than I meant to drooling over the furniture, and being shocked as I turned the pages at the prices. The Chesapeake Steamer Chaise, a comfortable-looking lounger? $299. Oh, and that doesn't include the cushion, which will set you back another $79 ($84 if you want the "ticking" cushion, whatever that means.) For the Chesapeake Conversation Lounge recliner, Pottery Barn includes two cushions. The price for that? $1,299. I guess we could buy it, but then who would pay the mortgage?

The furniture prices weren't the only thing that surprised me. The pictures looked nothing like the Chesapeake we know and love. They looked, maybe, like Ocean City, or a sandy beach in North Carolina, but not like the marshy, mucky bay that I see when I go to the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland - or, for that matter, Middle River.

That Pottery Barn got us wrong is not that surprising -- six years ago, they named a sofa after Baltimore. Here's how my friend, former Sun reporter Jaimee Rose, described it in the newspaper:

"It's a boxy little thing, with round arms and short legs, and comes upholstered in four different shades of velvet -- including Oriole-esque orange. It's soft yet firm, hip and classic at the same time, costs $1,399, and is incredibly ironic considering this: There is no Pottery Barn store in Baltimore proper. There's one in Towson Town Center -- a wisp of a thing, which, of course, does not carry the Baltimore sofa. The Baltimore sofa, in fact, is displayed only in select Pottery Barn stores, none of which are in Maryland, Washington, or Virginia … All shucks and gratitude aside, it's a little tough to see exactly how our city inspired this couch. It would never make it up the staircase of a rowhouse, is much too expensive to sit on while picking crabs, and we're pretty sure the Hon would hate it."

Compared to the beach chairs, that sofa is actually sounding affordable. Maybe Baltimore isn't so off-base a name after all.