“In staterooms where a high degree of elegance and grandeur are wanted, beds are frequently made of silk or satin figured or plain, also of velvet with gold fringe, etc. The Vallance to elegant beds should always be gathered full, which is called a Petticoat Vallance. The Cornices may be either of mahogany carved, carved or gilt, or painted and japanned. The ornaments over the cornices may be in the same manner; and carved and gilt, or japanned, will produce the most lively effect.
“Arms or other ornaments to Stuffed Head Boards should be carved in small relief, gilt and burnished. The Pillars should be of mahogany, with the enrichments carved.”
The field-bed, of which a design dated 1787 appears on Plate [LVII.], is the French lit à tombeau and lit à double tombeau. In England it was known as the single-headed and double-headed field-bed. A single-headed bed of this kind appears on Plate [XXXVI.], No. 8; and this Louis XV. model was copied by Chippendale for his later plates, in which many varieties of the field-bed appear. The bed represented on Plate [LVII.] needs no explanation. The cornice, or “sweep,” is delicately carved. Urns surmount the bed-posts. Below it, on Plate [LVII.], are “sweeps for field-bed tops” dated 1787 (Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7). Another design in Heppelwhite’s book for a bed with a sweep top is intended to be made of plain mahogany or with gilt ornaments. The headboard and draperies are quite elaborate. “The drapery may be the same as the furniture or the lining, the ornaments gilt, the headboard is stuffed and projects like the back of a sofa. The addition of stuffed headboards gives an elegant and high finish to the appearance of beds.”
The “press bed” is nothing more or less than a folding-bed in the shape of a wardrobe, with two big doors beneath which are drawers. Heppelwhite says:
“Of these we have purposely omitted to give any designs: their general appearance varying so little from wardrobes, which pieces of furniture they are intended to represent, that designs for them are not necessary.
“The upper drawers would be only sham and form part of the door, which may be made to turn up all in one piece, and form a tester; or may open in the middle, and swing on each side; the under drawer is useful to hold parts of the bed furniture; may be 5 feet 6 inches high, 14 feet wide.
“Nine designs for Cornices which are suitable for beds or windows are here shewn; these may be executed in wood painted and japanned, or in gold. A mixture of these two manners produces an elegant and grand effect. The foliage may be gilt, and the groundwork painted; or the reverse.” One of these appears as No. 4 on Plate [LIV.] This exhibits the curtain and toothed lappets, or points, of the lambrequin below the cornice.
The sideboard with Heppelwhite is quite different to that of Chippendale. The latter merely designs a long plain table with carved legs and no drawers. Heppelwhite’s sideboard is a far more highly developed piece of furniture. Sometimes the drawers were arranged in compartments, for various uses, and the sideboard had a cavity between the front legs to accommodate a wine-cooler. Pieces of plate and knife-cases stood upon its wide slab. The sideboard represented on Plate [LIV.] has Heppelwhite’s characteristic inlay of the husk or bell-flower done in satin-wood and the characteristic “spade” foot. An inlaid floral ornament decorates the corners below the front drawer.
Heppelwhite remarks:
“The great utility of this piece of furniture has procured it a very general reception; and the conveniences it affords render a dining-room incomplete without a sideboard.” The one represented on Plate [LIV.] has several drawers. The right-hand drawer “has partitions for nine bottles. Behind this is a place for cloths or napkins, occupying the whole depth of the drawer.”