Illustration 58 shows a bedstead made from one of Hepplewhite’s designs, about 1789. The lower posts are slender and fluted, and end in a square foot. [Illustration: Illus. 58.—Bedstead, 1789.] The cornice is japanned after the fashion which Hepplewhite made so popular, and the style in which this bedstead is draped is extremely attractive. It is at Indian Hill, the residence of the late Major Ben Perley Poore. The four-post bedsteads had sometimes canvas stretched across the frame and laced with ropes, similar to the seat of the couch in Illustration 206, and in other cases they were corded entirely with ropes. Mrs. Vanderbilt in her “Social History of Flatbush” thus describes the process of cording a bed: “It required a man’s strength to turn the machine that tightened the ropes, in cording these beds when they were put together. Some one was stationed at each post to keep it upright, while a man was exhausting his strength and perhaps his stock of patience and good temper, in getting the ropes sufficiently tight to suit the wife or mother. When the bedstead was duly corded and strung to the tension required, then a straw bed, in a case of brown home-made linen, was first placed over these cords, and upon this were piled feather beds to the number of three or four, and more if this was the spare-room bed.” The height of the top one of these feather beds from the floor was so great that steps were required to mount into it, and sets of mahogany steps are sometimes found now, which were made for this purpose. A set is shown in Illustration 64. Illustration 59 shows one of the finest bedsteads known in this country. It is in the house of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. The two lower posts are exquisitely carved with garlands of flowers, and every detail is beautiful; the upper posts are plain. The size of the posts is somewhat larger than during the previous years, and the style of the lower part with the fluted leg would place the date of the bedstead about 1795-1800, when the influence of Sheraton was strong. The cornice is painted with flowers in colors, and the painted band is framed in gilt; the ornaments at the corners, the basket with two doves, and the ropes and tassels are all of gilt. [Illustration: Illus. 59.—Bedstead, 1795-1800.] About 1800, when the Empire styles commenced to influence the makers of furniture, the posts of bedsteads became larger, and they were more heavily carved, with acanthus leaves twining around the post, or a heavy twist or fluting, with pineapples at the top. [Illustration: Illus. 60—Bedstead, 1800-1810.]