Canopy bed

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Canopy bed in Amantaka Hotel Canopy bed of Amantaka Suite in Amantaka luxury Resort & Hotel in Luang Prabang Laos.jpg
Canopy bed in Amantaka Hotel

A canopy bed is a bed with a canopy, which is usually hung with bed curtains. Functionally, the canopy and curtains keep the bed warmer and screen it from light and sight. On more expensive beds, they may also be elaborately ornamental.

Contents

History

Canopy bed of the Chinese Qing dynasty, late 19th or early 20th century MBAM 2009.84, Chinese canopy bed.JPG
Canopy bed of the Chinese Qing dynasty, late 19th or early 20th century

The canopy bed arose from a need for warmth and privacy in shared rooms without central heating. Private bedrooms where only one person slept were practically unknown in medieval and early modern Europe, as it was common for the wealthy and nobility to have servants and attendants who slept in the same room. Even in very modest homes, hanging a simple curtain across a room was not uncommon to shield the bed from cold drafts and create a division between living and sleeping spaces.

Some late medieval European bed canopies with curtains were suspended from ceiling beams. In English, these canopies were known as a "hung celour". The fabric canopy concealed an iron frame with iron curtain rods. These beds can be seen in manuscript illuminations, paintings, and engravings, showing cords suspending the front of the canopy to the ceiling. Such beds could easily be dismantled, and the rich fabric hangings could be carefully packed away. [1]

From the 16th century, ornately carved bed frames and expensive textiles became popular. [2] Inventories of Scottish aristocrats mention canopies as "roofs" and "chapel roofs", and a "chapel bed" was made for Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI and I in 1600. [3] A bed of crimson velvet and damask was made for her in England in 1605, and its canopy was called a "sparver". [4] The heraldic badge of the London Worshipful Company of Upholders depicts three sparver or canopy beds. [5]

In pre-Republican China, until 1911, the family's canopy bed was the most important piece of household furniture and often part of the bride's dowry. As status signifiers, these beds were often intricately decorated with auspicious motifs, particularly regarding fertility, longevity, and a happy marital union. [6] In Germany, Frommern was the world capital of furniture during the Wirtschaftswunder. In Frommern, a line of high-polished industrial production takes up the ideas of the royal Hofebenist . In the Haus der Volkskunst the traditional Himmelbett is used as a hotel bed. [7] [8]

Modern canopy beds

Modern canopy bed Canopy bed white.jpg
Modern canopy bed

Today's canopy beds generally fit into two categories: traditional and contemporary. Most traditional canopy beds have a Victorian aesthetic, with either metal rod frames or intricately carved wood frames and posts. These throwbacks also often feature ruffled, pleated, elaborate draping, sometimes with rather heavy cloth. In contrast, contemporary canopy beds generally employ a simpler design. Wood, metal, or a combination of the two is used to construct modern canopy beds, which usually have little to no detail on the foot and headboards and often feature sharp, geometric designs.[ citation needed ]

The individual parts of modern canopy beds are called as follows:

Historic types

Four-poster bed Lit a baldaquin de Leonard de Vinci a Clos-Luce.JPG
Four-poster bed
Lit a la duchesse Chateau de Grignan - lit chambre.jpg
Lit à la duchesse
  • Lit à la duchesse
    lit de bout
    upholstered headboard, no outer posts nor footboard;
    bed-sized flat-roofed canopy projecting from the wall at the head of the bed.
Lit a l'ange Castle of Chenonceau 07.jpg
Lit à l'ange
Lit a la polonaise Lit a la Polonaise, bed van groen en grijs geschilderd beukenhout met vijf conische poten met acanthusblad, snijwerk van bloem- en bladwerk, beklede hemel en schotten, BK-1956-45.jpg
Lit à la polonaise
  • Lit à la polonaise
    lit de travers or lit en alcove
    usually upholstered headboard and footboard of the same height; posts are poles which bend inwards to support a small crown, from which the canopy is suspended.
Lit a la turque Versailles Chateau de Versailles Appartements d'Hiver 11.jpg
Lit à la turque
  • Lit à la turque
    lit de travers
    like the canopy on a lit à la duchesse, the crown is mounted only on one side (often on the wall), but unlike the lit à la duchesse, it is mounted at the side of the bed, not the head.

See also

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References

  1. Penelope Eames, 'The Making of a Hung Celour', Furniture History, 33 (1997), pp. 35-42.
  2. "A Brief History". Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2017. "History Of The Four Poster Bed"
  3. Michael Pearce, 'Beds of Chapel Form in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Inventories: The Worst Sort of Bed', Regional Furniture, 27 (2013), pp. 75-91.
  4. Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, Addenda 1580-1625 (London, 1872), p. 456.
  5. J. F. Houston, Featherbedds and Flock Bedds: The Early History of the Worshipful Company of Upholders of the City of London (London, 2006).
  6. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, plaque accompanying exhibit no. 2009.84, visited 2014
  7. film in swabian german
  8. Kultur in german
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Von Tobel, Jackie. "Bedding Basics: Key Bed Terms." The Design Directory of Bedding. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2009. 58. Print.
  10. La Société française au dix-septième siècle: An Account of French Society in the XVIIth Century from Contemporary Writers, New York and London, GP. Putnam's Sons, 1907, p. 280.