When the mercury starts to drop, hibernation begins looking like a rather attractive option, all the more so if there is a canopy bed involved. There are few things, after all, more romantic than a fabric-trussed bed. Thought to have originated in the Far and Middle Easts, it was brought by the Crusaders to Europe where it was a symbol of status: Not only was material a sign of wealth, but the bed’s inhabitants were elevated while poorer folk, or retainers, who often occupied the same room, slept on the floor.
The four-poster bed has been called “the bed of kings, and the king of beds,” and for good reason: Louis XIV reportedly had 413 canopy beds, all told. Marie Antoinette slept in one, too. Canopied beds can be ceremonial or homely; their draperies, plain or fancy, can be hung from posts or affixed to the wall. William Morris’s daughter May hand-worked the hangings on his bed, but Amanda Harlech chicly repurposed a silk parachute to cloak a bed in a manor in Wales. (There’s a reason she’s so in demand as a muse.) Decorative and romantic, canopy beds are not without practicality. Draperies provided warmth, and privacy. Even in these days of central heating and show-all, tell-all mores, draperies have their uses. Not only can they add a titillating sense of mystery to a bedroom (what’s behind the curtain?), but they can be yanked closed on the days you neglect to make your bed. Not that you’d ever dream of doing that. Ever.
