No. 3 on Plate [XLVIII.] is a favourite with Chippendale. It appears in his first edition as Plate [XXXI.] and in his third as Plate [XXI.] This is more than 6 feet high, over 6 feet long, and 5 feet, 6 inches wide. He says this “is a dome bed, the side of the dome and the cornice I have form’d into an elliptical form, to take off the seeming weight which a bed of this kind has when the cornice runs straight. There are four dragons going up from each corner; the curtains and vallens are all in drapery. The head-board has a small Chinese Temple with a joss, or Chinese God; on each side is a Chinese man at worship; the outside of the dome is intended to be japan’d and Mosaic work drawn upon it; the other ornaments to be gilt; but that is left to the will of those who shall please to have it executed.”
PLATE XXXIX
Of the full drawing on the same plate, Chippendale gives no description. The dimensions that he gives are 6 feet, 4 inches for the length; 7 feet, 6 inches for the height; and 5 feet for the width. The long and tightly rolled and covered bolster below the ornamental head-board is the style he required for all his beds. Pillows never appear. This bed, as well as the Dome Bed just described, is dated 1753. This bed can be greatly simplified by substituting for the carved cornice and headboard plain ones following the same general outlines covered with the same materials as the curtains, and plain feet may be covered with a deep valance that touches the floor. Chippendale himself suggests such treatment when his beds are thought too difficult of execution. However, he prefers the wood to show, as is natural to a carver, because in his ten very handsome designs for bed pillars he says “they are all designed with pedestals, which must certainly look better than Bases of stuff around the Bed, and the Pillars seem to be unsupported.”
Another bed has pillars “composed of reeds with a palm branch twisting round,” the pillars being 8 feet, 6 inches high; and the bedstead 6 feet, 7 inches long and 6 feet wide.
The “Field” or “Tent beds are heavily draped, but the curtains and festoons are made to take off, and the laths are hung with hinges for the convenience of folding up.”
Another, is a “Chinese Bed,” the “curtains and vallens are tied up in drapery, the tester is canted at each corner, which makes a sort of an elliptical ornament or arch, and if well executed will look very well.” Another bed “may be gilt, or covered with the same stuff as the curtains.”
Before dismissing the four-post beds, the question of cornices must be considered. Chippendale gives numerous designs for “Cornices for Beds or Windows.” These are carved and are supposed to be gilt, or painted, or japanned, brightened with gold. Such designs as the scroll and leaf are frequent, as shown in No. 1 on Plate [XL.] while other ornaments are the crown, the urn, the shell, the eagle, the draped urn, the grotesque dog or monkey’s head holding the ends of two garlands in his mouth, the long-tailed and open-beaked bird.
Turning now to the Canopy, Couch and Sofa beds, we find Chippendale describing a “Couch with Canopy. The Curtains must be made to draw up in Drapery, or to let down, when it is occasionally converted into a Bed. This sort of Couch is very fit for alcoves, or such deep Recesses as are often seen in large Apartments. It may also be placed at the end of a long gallery. If the Curtains and Valances are adorned with a large gold Fringe and Tassels, and the ornaments gilt with burnished gold, it will look very grand. The Crane at the top of the Canopy is the Emblem of Care and Watchfulness: which I think it not unbecoming in a place of rest. The length of the bed cannot be less than 6 feet in the clear, but may be more if required. The Breadth is 3 feet or more, in proportion to the length. The height may be determined by the place it is to stand in.”
Another “Couch bed,” he tells us, “was made for an alcove in Lord Pembroke’s house, at Whitehall.” This bed is a sofa of sweeping curve, three short cabriole legs supporting it in front. A stiff rolled bolster is placed at each end of the sofa crosswise. Four slender posts hold a canopy draped and decorated with a Chinese feeling, only tassels are used for ornaments instead of bells. The drapery is arranged in four symmetrical festoons, caught back gracefully at the sides and falling nearly to the short leg of the sofa. This was really a kind of lit de repos rather than a bed properly speaking; but there is one that can be used either as a sofa or a bed. He describes it as follows: “A Chinese Canopy with Curtains and Valances tied up in Drapery, and may be converted into a Bed by making the front part of the seat to draw forward, and the sides made to fold and turn in with strong iron hinges and a proper stretcher to keep out and support the sides when open. The curtains must be likewise made to come forward, and when let down will form a Tent.”