34 
House & Garden 
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DRESSING the 
FOUR-POSTER BED 
A Colonial Decoration Well 
Worth Preserving 
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Wallace 
A double curtain is used on this pair of mod¬ 
ern Colonial four-posters; cretonne testers 
with a fringed scrim lining lending an air of 
daintiness. Long spreads exclude the usual 
flounce 
The Empire mode has been applied to the 
single four-poster below. Curtains, spread 
and flounce are a lemon yellow Chinese chintz. 
Chair and valance of the same. Curtains art 
black velvet 
EVA NAGEL WOLFE 
T HE problem of dressing the four-poster 
depends principally upon the type of 
room in which it is placed. One would nat¬ 
urally suppose that none but a Colonial house 
would include a four-poster; unfortunately that 
is not the case. If one has consistently carried 
out the Colonial idea in the house nothing is 
more charming in its simplicity than the Col¬ 
onial bedroom with its round rag rugs on the 
floor, hand-spun, hand-woven and embroidered 
linen bed hangings, flouncings and curtains of 
dainty white at the windows. If one does not 
care for so colorless a room, cretonne, chintz, 
gingham or taffeta may be used for the bed 
curtains and window draperies with a white 
valance and bed flouncing. 
The Purpose of the Curtains 
It must be remembered that a four-poster— 
“a large bed with four high posts for curtains” 
—as Webster defines it, was constructed in 
this manner for a definite purpose. In Colonial 
days there was little if any heat in the bed¬ 
rooms and to guard the sleeper from “the 
draughts of deadly night air,” bed curtains 
were thought necessary and posts were erected 
at the head and the foot of the bed to hold 
them. 
During the 17th and 18th Centuries the 
four-poster frequently brought as much if not 
more than all the other articles of furniture; 
not that the four-poster was so valuable but 
the hangings, quilts, coverlets, and most of 
all, the feather beds constituted the value. 
It remains with the individual whether cur¬ 
tains both at the head and the foot of the bed 
are used. These curtains, which practically 
inclose the bed, were a feature of the four- 
poster in the days of the early settlers. To¬ 
day, however, one rarely sees the curtains at 
the foot of the bed. And unless one is wedded 
to the period idea they are not to be recom¬ 
mended. Should the framework connecting the 
posts suggest the tent top, dress it as in the 
While there may be beauty in the turnings of this 
old four-poster, the daintiness of a Colonial room is 
lacking in the absence of a flounce. Such a treat¬ 
ment is too severe 
