Page:Southern Antiques - Burroughs - 1931.djvu/206



T IS a well-known fact among collectors that there are no Southern bedsteads before 1700 to be found, but despite the failure of the beds to reveal themselves, no one disputes the fact that they were made in number. Inventories mention bedsteads and couches as local-made as early as 1659, but no bed of that date has survived to tell the story of what they were. An old bed of 1720-1740 is, however, presented. This scarcity of early bedsteads has been explained by the fact that they could not be utilized by the owners for making any other piece of furniture when discarded, and were doubtless done away with.

A study of conditions leads to the belief that early Southerners, as a rule, contented themselves with simple beds, although a few of the more costly carved oak beds were brought from England, but once conditions had improved, many Southern beds began to take on fine airs and lend themselves to decoration. Following the middle of the seventeenth century, Virginia gentlemen of high estate, when they could, sought their slumbers amidst draperies of much magnificence, as consorted with their dignity in manner and dress. Many spent lavishly for furnishings of a bed. The inventory of the estate of Colonel Epes, Henrico County, Virginia, in 1670, lists: "Feather bed with camlett curtains and double vallins lind with yellow silke, bolster pillow, counterpane, rodds and hooks, tops and stands, one curtaine and some fringe." Costs were more than twenty-five pounds. The bedstead is not mentioned. Beds were of first importance, and it was customary, during the early periods, when going on an extended visit, to take one's bed.

Some of the early bedsteads were built in the wall or placed in a niche in the wall,



with two carved posts on the outside, the other two posts being plain. However, the greater number of beds had four elaborately carved oak posts, with a paneled and carved headboard. Some of them contained cupboards in themselves. Examples are known to have secret cupboards at the head to conceal weapons.

Wooden cornices, employed up to 1750, gave way to the valence, and the four-poster was in vogue. The draperies were to 182