Illustration 53 shows a curious bedstead made about 1750, when it was
used by Dr. Samuel Johnson, president of King’s College, New York.
It is now owned by his descendant, Mrs. Johnson-Hudson of Stratford,
Connecticut. The slanting back of the bedstead is like the back of
an early Chippendale chair, and the effect is similar to that of the
couches shown in Illustration 205 and Illustration 206; but this piece
was evidently intended for a bed, as it is considerably wider than the
couches, which were “day beds.” The wood of this bedstead is mahogany.
The commode which stands beside the bed is of a slightly later date.
It is also of mahogany, with massive brass handles.
Illustration 54 shows a bedstead of about 1760-1770. It is what was
called a field bed, the form of its top suggesting a tent. The frames
for the canopy top were made in different shapes, but the one in the
illustration was most common. The drapery is made of the netted fringe
so much used in those days for edging bedspreads, curtains, and covers.
This deep fringe was made especially for canopy tops for bedsteads.
Its manufacture has been revived by several Arts and Crafts Societies.
The slat-back chair is one of the rush-bottomed variety common during
the eighteenth century. This room, with its wooden rafters, is in the
Whipple house at Ipswich, built in 1650.
The claw-and-ball foot bedstead in Illustration 55 was a part of the
wedding outfit of Martha Tufts, who was married in 1774, in Concord. It
was then hung with the printed cotton draperies, hand spun and woven,
which still hang from the tester, albeit much darned and quite dropping
apart with age. The draperies are of a brownish color, possibly from
age, but at all events they are now dingy and unattractive, whatever
they may have been in 1774. The posts above the cabriole legs are
small and plain, and there is no headboard. The wood is mahogany. This
bedstead is now owned by the Concord Antiquarian Society. Although
Chippendale’s designs do not show a bedstead with claw-and-ball
feet, he probably did make such bedsteads, and this may be called
Chippendale, as it belongs to that period.
[Illustration: Illus. 55.—Claw-and-Ball Foot Bedstead, 1774.]
A bedstead with plain, simple posts, with the cover and hangings of old
netting, is shown in Illustration 56. There is a good comb-back Windsor
arm-chair and a mahogany cradle of the period in the room, which is a
bedroom in the Lee Mansion, Marblehead, Mass.
[Illustration: Illus. 56.—Bedstead, 1780.]
A splendid bedstead found in Charleston, S. C., and now owned by J.
J. Gilbert, Esq., of Baltimore, is shown in Illustration 57. All four
posts are carved and reeded, and are after the manner of Chippendale.
The tester and headboard show the Adam influence, placing the date of
the bedstead about 1770.
[Illustration: Illus. 57.—Bedstead, 1775-1785.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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