October, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND 



GARDENS 



383 



3 — A Modern Bedroom Furnished with Old-time Mahogany Furniture 



pears in No. 4, which plate also contains a rush-bottom chair 

 of the form very popular from 1700 to 1750. 



It must be remembered that steam-heated rooms were not 

 known to the community as a whole during the greater part 

 of the nineteenth century. People, as a rule, slept in cold 

 rooms, or in rooms heated by an open fire. The curtained 

 bed, therefore, had a function as well as being merely a 

 decorative feature of the room. At night the occupant fre- 

 quently wore a nightcap and drew the curtains closely around 

 him to shield himself from draughts. The modern taste for 

 cold fresh air has, in a way, revived the need of curtained 

 beds, and many a modern room now contains copies of old 

 styles of furniture and upholstery. 



A reference to manufacturers' lists will show that iron and 

 brass bedsteads were not advertised for sale till about i860. 

 By this time the wooden canopied bedstead, 

 called the "half-tester," had generally sup- 

 planted the four-poster. The "French bed- 

 stead" was also popular. The latter ap- 

 pears in Nos. 2, 3 and 6. The head and 

 footpiece were alike In size and shape, and 

 over It two curtains fell, sometimes from a 

 pole fixed at the side, and sometimes from ' 

 a small circular canopy attached to the ceil- 

 ing. The iron bedsteads were made in all 

 forms, the "half-tester" being a particu- 

 larly popular one. The curtains of flowered 

 chintz or bright cretonne, matching or con- 

 trasting with the light wall paper and win- 

 dow curtains, gave the room that bright- 

 ness which is always desirable in a sleeping 

 apartment. Dark tints were, as they should 

 be, confined to the downstairs rooms. 



In recent years there has been a decided 

 return to old fashions. The bedroom car- 

 pet has been banished, the floor being pol- 

 ished and decorated with two or three rugs 

 of Oriental pattern. The old custom of 

 being satisfied with a rug beside the bed 

 to step out on, another before the dressing- 

 table, and a third before the washstand, af- 

 fords all the necessary comfort, and is 

 found to be far more decorative than a uni- 



form ground of sprawling patterns. Ex- 

 amples of this are seen In Nos. 2, 3 and 5. 



From about i860 to the last decade there 

 was a taste for "sets," comprising a bed- 

 stead without drapery, a dressing-table 

 with rows of drawers at each side of the 

 long glass, a washhand-stand, several chairs 

 and an oval table with marble top. These 

 sets were made of walnut, cherry, maple, 

 etc., and cheap wood painted In light col- 

 ors decorated with flowers and known as 

 "cottage furniture" was also popular. 

 These almost drove out the mahogany, and 

 indeed much of It — heavy, clumsy, unpleas- 

 ing In form and devoid of carving or any 

 ornamentation to brighten It — deserved 

 to go. 



People of simple means frequently fur- 

 nish their rooms with reproductions of par- 

 ticular styles they favor; thus, No. 7 shows 

 a room decorated and furnished in Louis 

 Quinze style. 



Turning now to the actual contents of 

 rooms during the nineteenth century, let us 

 look at one or two records. Mr. Derby, 

 a wealthy resident of Salem, died in 1805. 

 His "Southeast Chamber" has a Brussels 

 carpet on the floor, and the open fireplace Is furnished with 

 brass andirons, bellows and steel shovel, tongs and fender. 

 The bed is a four-poster with green curtains (worth $133), 

 and there are two green chairs, eight mahogany chairs with 

 silk bottoms, an easy chair, a rich looking-glass, a chest-upon- 

 chest of drawers, a stand-table, two flower-pots and two 

 crickets, or stools. The "Northwest Chamber" Is also cov- 

 ered with a Brussels carpet; white cotton curtains hang at 

 the windows and probably drape the four-post mahogany 

 bed (worth $130). The other furniture consists of ma- 

 hogany chairs, an easy chair, a dressing-glass, a looking- 

 glass, a mahogany commode, a washhand-stand and basin, 

 five pictures, three white china flower-pots and brass hearth 

 furniture. These Salem rooms differ very little from the 

 bedrooms of "Mount Vernon," the "Front Room" of which 



The " Wing Chair " of the XVlll and XIX Centuries, and the Rush-bottom Chair 

 of I 700-1 750 Are Still Prized in Modern Rooms 



