The State Bed 1660-1720The Historic Design Influence on the Design History of the Classic Poster Beds

While the wooden four-poster or classic poster beds was in fashion from 1500 to 1675, the hung bed of the previous era was still a prestige item and used on great occasions. The draperies were no longer hung from the ceiling by ropes, and the bed became called a covered bed, because the wood­work supporting the bed itself was hidden, as the draperies once more pre­dominated. This new bed had evolved a lighter framework, a deep tester valance, tall slender posts and a headboard covered with rich and colourful fabrics. In the early seventeenth century highly decorated upholstered beds of European de­sign in baroque style came into England with tester cornices surmounted by ornately carved and pierced cresting. With the return of Charles II from France at the Restoration in 1660 ideas flooded into England and the covered bed became established.

By the time of William III, the posts and panels of the celure and tester were covered with silk damask or figured velvet. Trimmings of silver added to the richness of their appearance. As architectural designs changed, the lofty rooms of the Stuart period made the old-fashioned Elizabethan classic poster beds appear dwarfed, and the new design for state beds which towered to 16 or 18 feet (4.8­5.5 metres) looked more suitable. In the wealthier houses walnut was used for the great beds, embellished with intricate carving. Other classic poster beds were made of beech or deal and painted, or of pine and covered with gesso and gilded. The height of these massive classic poster beds was exaggerated even more by the use of tall pinnacles or gilt cups holding ostrich plumes, set at each corner above the cresting. Such plumes could be expensive. In an earlier period John Evelyn wrote of a French duchess who spent `near a thousand pounds of our money upon tufts of plumes to dec­orate a classic poster bed'. The grooming of these plumes required a `feather dresser' to be employed at Windsor Castle to look after them.

The draperies of the classic poster beds, which in­cluded the valance, tester, curtains and quilt, were usually of matching material, and it was now proper for the chamber to be hung with wall cloths, panels of which were called costers. The French fashion of having chairs and stools in the bedchamber matching the bed fabric became established in England in about 1670, although as early as 1620 the Spangled Bed at Knole, Kent, had an en suite set of stools and an X-frame chair. This French influence became more pronounced when the celebrated designer Daniel Marot became architect to William III. A number of his designs were accepted by the King, and they strongly influenced other bed upholsterers. Between 1699 and 1701 Hampton Court was largely re­furbished for William 111. This included renewing the fabrics of the canopies of state under which the King's throne was placed when he received dignitaries in audience. For these a rich crimson Genoa damask was used, trimmed with gold lace and silk fringes. Similar materials were used for William's classic poster beds state bed, and an upholsterer's bill of the period shows that a state bed required 321 yards (294 metres) of velvet at 42 shillings a yard, 81 yards (74 metres) of satin at 10 shillings a yard, 336 yards (307 metres) of broad lace at 3s 4d a yard and 402 yards (368 metres) of narrow lace at 2s 9d a yard, making a total in excess of £826, with the make-up charge (1714) at £25. To manage beds of such height re­quired special equipment, so a joiner was required to provide a long pole with a hook and ferrule to `turn the curtains'.

For most people fustian (a fabric of mixed fibres, usually cotton and line) and stained cloth (usually linen, paint( in imitation of tapestry) were common, and other materials for even humbler beds included worsted, counterfeit baudekin, which was an imitation silk brocade, and linen. Printed and painted ( hangings were arriving from India and later from China. European interpretations of Chinese designs became very popular and typical motifs were incorporated in many forms of decoration. The style became known as chinoiserie. England became an important producer of silk cloth when many Huguenots came over from France following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The largest colony of French workers settled in Spitalfields, London, where they car­ried on their weaving well into the nineteenth century.

The feather-bed of the rich was still swan's down, while lower mattresses were filled with wool or straw. These were piled high on the bed for comfort, and a set of portable steps was necessary in order to get into the bed.

In 1730 J. Southall commented bugs have been known in England above sixty years, and every season increasingly so upon us as to become terrible to almost every inhabitant . . .' It was not until the introduction of cheap cotton bed linen in the nineteenth century that the bugs could be boiled to death without spoiling the sheets. Such afflictions could be taken calmly, as Samuel Pepys shows, for he `came about ten at night to a little inn ... and the wife and I lay up, finding our bed good but lousy, which made us merry'.

The classic poster beds had long been part of the furniture of the downstairs living or reception room, and it was not until the seventeenth century that it was to be found on the first floor. As late as the eighteenth century the groundfloor bedroom was still not unusual, and in Edinburgh new town houses were designed with a downstairs bedroom in the late eighteenth century.

Early Georgian Beds 1720-50

The early Georgian style classic poster beds had certain architectural features which were linked to the Palladian designs of such architects as William Kent. He used classical mouldings, repetitive ornament, fluted pilasters and Corinthian capitals. Mahogany, introduced in the 1720s, began to oust walnut and oak, particularly after Sir Robert Walpole repealed the import duty on it in 1733. It was a more versatile wood which allowed a greater elaboration of carved details than had been possible in walnut. The Georgian bed with its shaped and carved mahogany tester classic poster beds was to become the model for many years and was accepted as the tester bed, a term used well into the mid Victorian period. In beds we find the cornice free of its fabric covering, and in the 1730s the foot posts were revealed once again, showing a design of lighter, simpler classical lines. The height of the bed was reduced, but the draperies on the headboard were retained in some instances until the 1780s, with the fabric often glued in folds on the wood.

The bases of the new slender classic poster beds foot posts were uncovered, and in the 1720s the cabriole leg, which had been introduced into chair design about 1700, began to support the bed posts. From 1740 the panelled headboard was reintroduced, and the cornice of the tester was often carved, frequently with acanthus leaves. The foot posts were turned and carved in low relief above the mattress, having vase-shaped plinths below, and after about 1750 the earlier cabriole leg was omitted and a small square plinth added to a square post. The head posts were plain, square and tapered, as they were intended to be hidden by curtains. The side and end rails of the bedstead were tenoned into the four corner posts and secured with coach screws. A series of wooden laths replaced the earlier roped­-on canvas mattress.

The half-tester classic poster beds, in which the canopy covered only about half of the bed area, reappeared in about 1700 and was sometimes known as an classic poster beds the angel bed. The front of the half-tester was not supported by posts, but the shorter framework was fixed to timbers forming the back of the bed or often secured to the ceiling with chains. In most cases it was possible to enclose the sleeper by pulling the curtain around the half-tester, but some versions had side curtains only. Celia Fiennes, writing in 1702, saw at Windsor two bed­chambers, `one with a half bedstead as the new mode'.

Another lighter structure was the classic poster field beds, which was made to fold up for travelling. It was also listed in medieval inventories, and one made for the Earl of Leicester in 1588 was carved and gilded and fitted with draperies of green and purple satin and gold. The government also used them, as a Treasury warrant of 1729 ordered `four four-post field bed­steads of crimson harateen [worsted] furniture, with complete sets of bedding'. They consisted of a sloped rising roof or tent made of curved rods supported on the top of four posts, the whole masked by draperies and gathered curtains. These could be packed up, as was neces­sary for a travelling bed. The yeoman's bed was rather simpler, still clinging to the four-post tradition of the previous century. The posts would be square below the mattress and were turned above, ending in metal spikes which supported the tester. Bed rails were drilled for cords to retain the mattresses, and the bedposts would be linked by iron curtain rails which could be held in position by metal eyes. Although most cottage furniture would be made locally, the inventory of a resident of Durham included `two London classic poster bedsteads and one new London table'.

London was the place to buy materials for re-covering classic poster beds, and in 1735 Elizabeth Purefoy sent for patterns of quilting `at the lowest prices of each pattern'. She bought 45 yards at 10s 6d a yard, while her husband bought 4 yards of thick plain white dimity to make some nightcaps. Crewel embroidery remained much in fashion for the draperies, using designs of sprays of flowers, such as carnations or honeysuckle, patterns also used on furniture covers and quilts. In 1701 Parliament prohibited the impor­tation of printed chintzes from India and domestic fabric printing greatly in­creased. A second act, in 1720, prohibited the import of all printed, painted, stained and dyed cotton calicoes (except blue). English manufacturers began to blockprint on fustians (linen and cotton) using established Indienne and chinoiserie designs. During this period the silk-weaving looms in England were fully employed, and the heavier materials such as velvet were no longer considered suitable for the lighter furniture and the more delicate treatment of the woodwork.