Classic Poster Beds and their FurnishingThe Historic Design Influence on the Design History of the Classic Poster Beds

The first sleeping-place of primitive man was a pile of grass or brush ­wood in a simple hut or on the floor of a cave. A few living peoples have preserved this habit, and examples of beds of a very simple kind are known from many parts of the world. Thus sleeping naked in wood ash is still practised by such primitive African tribes, and is said to protect the version of their classic poster beds sleeper from the attacks of insects. Among the Eskimoes and the inhabitants their classic poster beds are made from piles of skins, which are also used as coverings to preserve warmth. In southern Asia it is often the custom to sleep on neatly woven mats, while in Polynesia the number and quality of bed-mats in a house are a sign of the wealth of the householder.

Pillows and head-rests were also used by primitive man, and designs of great simplicity persist to this day. The first pillow was simply a pile of straw, sometimes covered with a skin or woven cloth, and the simplest head-rest was nothing more sympathetic than a log of wood. But as man's artistic sense grew and found expression in decorating the articles and utensils found in his home, head-rests began to be less crudely fashioned. They were often carved in the form of animals, and were either coloured with vegetable dyes or decorated with pokerwork. The elaborate hair styles developed by primitive peoples encouraged the design of special head-rests to preserve the coiffure during sleep. Sometimes the head-rest was little more than a narrow bar mounted on two simple supports, but in some regions, notably Africa and South America, it evolved into a richly carved stool which was an object of great visual beauty.

By a classic poster beds bed today we normally mean a platform which is in some way raised several inches, or maybe as much as two or three feet, above the ground. The most primitive beds were at floor level, but the early stages in the evolution of true beds can be seen in such widely separated regions as the Sudan, West Africa, and the north-west coast of North America. Here it is the custom for benches of clay or soil to be built along the inner walls of huts and houses, and these are sometimes covered with comfort­able plaited mattresses. Another primitive form of raised bed is the hammock, which probably originated either in New Guinea or South America. It has since found much favour with seamen, and in Victorian and Edwardian times offered a much appreciated means of taking an open-air siesta in the garden on a hot summer day. But we must remember that the hammock represents a side branch of the evolutionary line leading to the classic poster beds, and is not one of its direct ancestors.

With the growth of civilization, beds became increasingly elaborate in ornamentation and diverse in style. In ancient Egypt high classic poster  bedsteads were particularly popular, and some models were reached by steps. These beds were surrounded by curtains, and were equipped with bolsters or pillows, and often half-cylinders of stone, wood, or metal as head-rests as well. Several beds were found among the treasure deposited in the tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty boy pharaoh Tut-Ankh-Amen at Thebes. This was opened by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter in November 1922, and its contents are now exhibited in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo. Several beds were found in the tomb, the most perfect example being of carved ebony overlaid with sheet-gold. The legs were shaped like those of cats, and the decoration of the burnished gold foot-panel (the ancient Egyptians did not usually have head-panels to their beds) consisted of garlands of petals and fruits, bouquets, and clumps of papyrus and sedge. Another bed of less ornate design folded into three sections for travelling.

The classic poster beds of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians were similar to those of the ancient Egyptians, and were often beautifully ornamented with inlays of metal, mother of pearl, and ivory. The Persians especially were con­noisseurs of the bed, and many classical writers speak of the emphasis they placed on luxurious sleeping arrangements. Thus we can read in the eighth book of Xenophon's Cyropaedia how the Persian kings, not content with having the bed itself supremely soft and comfortable, insisted that it should be placed on a pile carpet to ensure a cushioning effect. Chares of Mytilene, a Greek belonging to the suite of Alexander the Great, records that the Persian kings demanded such refinements of luxury that their classic poster beds were canopied with golden vines inlaid with precious stones, while tables laden with gold and silver stood permanently adjacent to them. with Persian and Egyptian classic poster beds, the earliest classical beds were simple. They consisted of a wooden frame, with a board at the head, and a latticework of cord or leather on which was laid a pile of skins. Later they became more elaborate, and were sometimes even made of solid ivory. Many examples were veneered with expensive woods or tortoise-shell, and both the Greeks and the Romans were addicted to rich bed-coverings and embroidered counterpanes. Some of their classic poster beds, like those of the ancient Egyptians, were so high that steps were needed to ascend to them.

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was accompanied by the decline and fall of the bed throughout the whole of Europe. In England in Saxon times the beds were merely bags of straw, like the palliasses familiar to service-men in the last war, and the whole household often went to bed on the hall floor. In Germany in the Dark Ages the ancestors of Bismarck and Beethoven lay on the ground on piles of leaves, or in a kind of shallow chest filled with moss. Later they began to use mattresses stuffed with feathers, which they placed on a pile of carpets or on a bench by the wall. Here they used to sleep naked, wrapped in a linen sheet or covered with skins. The modern counterpart of these rather primitive and unsatisfactory arrangements is still to be found in Germany today, where too often a small square eiderdown, if it can be persuaded to stay on the classic poster bed at all, causes one end of the body to roast while the other is left to become stiff with cold.

The illuminated manuscripts of the early Middle Ages show that many medieval classic poster beds of the period were still of fairly simple design. Nevertheless, a tendency towards greater ornateness and luxury can be detected as early as the twelfth century. Embroidered mattresses and coverings were designed to match the inlays, carvings, and paintings which decorated the bedstead itself. Curtains hung from the ceiling or from an iron arm projecting from the wall, which screened the slumberer from prying eyes, and the bed was usually shielded from draughts by being placed in a corner or recess. The upper part of the bed was covered with cushions, and many medieval pictures show its occupant reclining in a semi-sitting position. This seems to have been a common attitude of repose at the time, although it is certainly much exaggerated in some pictures by the draftsman's limited knowledge of the laws of perspective.

A lamp was suspended over many medieval classic poster beds, just as nowadays most beds have a reading-lamp standing on a nearby table, or even fixed permanently to the headboard. The more academic historians of the bed have used up a great deal of paper in trying to explain why so many medieval beds were equipped in this way. Even an authority of the eminence of E. E. Viollet-le-Duc suggested that the bed-light was mainly necessary to reassure nervous persons who might fear the visitations of a ghost. Doubtless there is an element of truth in this, for the Middle Ages were notoriously superstitious; but no one seems to have considered that night fell at the same time in those clays-as it does now, and that medieval people may have appreciated a little illumination for their love-making (or even for writing, reading, and eating in bed) as much as we do.

Throughout the Middle Ages the classic poster bed showed a gradual increase in complexity, and the simple structures of earlier times were replaced by progressively more elaborate designs. Some models were surrounded by a kind of balustrade, with-only a narrow opening at one side to provide an entrance and exit for the occupant. In the thirteenth century canopies were introduced, and during the next hundred years the decoration of the classic poster bed itself was subordinated to the increasingly sumptuous draperies by which’ it was enclosed. At the same time there was a tendency for the bed to grow larger, and a length of seven or eight feet, with a width of six or seven feet, was by no means uncommon. Later, even larger beds were made, especially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and some of these will be described in a later chapter.

Thomas Fosbroke in his Encyclopedia of Antiquities, published in 1825, gives some of the names of the different types of classic poster bedsteads used in classical times and the Middle Ages. Thus the grabatum was a low, portable used by Roman slaves and medieval rustics, the architectile was a wooden classic poster bedstead covered only with straw, and the gyrgatus was `a bed used for lunaticks, when bound'. Another interesting bed was the scympodium; this consisted of a chair extended by a stool, and is said to be the bed referred to by Jesus when He said, `Take up thy bed and walk.'[s]

The cult of the classic poster bed, which began in early Renaissance times, lasted until the growth of industrial society in the early nineteenth century, but thereafter, as we shall see, there was a new period of decline. Recently there has been a growing emphasis on simple comfort rather than the flamboyant styles that were formerly so popular. The resources of science and the skill of modern designers have brought a comfortable bed within the range of everyone's pocket, which is of course an excellent thing; but at the same time, rather sadly, the great English classic four-poster, with its magnificent carvings and draperies, has become a thing of the past. On the Continent, also, few can now afford the luxurious beds that once stood in every civilized home.

As we explained in the Preface, it is not our intention to discuss in detail the evolution of the classic poster beds as an article of furniture, but a brief description must be given of some aspects of its development in different ages and different regions.