Dressing a Neoclassical four poster bed

Years ago, when Hettie Pool still had her antique shop on the corner of High and Trappes Streets, in Worcester, we popped in to say hello to Ena Steyn, a friend’s mom, who managed the shop. The shop occupied one of the original thatched townhouses, dating from the 1800’s.  We took the opportunity to look around the many rooms that were filled with antiques.

Ena showed us a rural Cape Neoclassical four poster bed made from yellowwood and stinkwood. Although the Neoclassical period in Europe spanned the years 1760 to 1820, the stylistic Neoclassical period at the Cape of Good Hope occurred a bit later, featuring in the years from 1790 to 1870. (Source: Ou-Kaapse Meubels, Matilda Burden, 2013).

The bed embodied the classical characteristics of the period, namely, clarity of form with strong horizontal and vertical lines that give it a timeless feel. We really liked the bed and decided that it would be perfect for the master bedroom at Towerwater. When we bought the bed, it was undressed, meaning that it had only the stinkwood frame resting on the top of the four posts without canopy or hangings.

We decided on the final colours for the bedroom during the latest round of renovations and refurbishments. This included the curtains, canopy, bed hangings and lampshades. In pursuit of historical inspiration, I could find no accurate visual record of how a typical canopy and bed hangings of this period in the Cape, might have looked.

In his book, Cape Antique Furniture, published in April 1959, Lennox van Onselen describes bedroom furniture in chapter five. He states that, “Cape bedroom furniture usually consisted of a fourposter bed, an armoire, a washstand and a dressing table on which stood a dressing mirror.” He says about the four-poster bed, “They were adopted as a necessity in the country districts where living quarters and sleeping apartments were not always differentiated. The curtains with which the sides could be enclosed gave a measure of privacy in overcrowded rooms and the canopy afforded protection from dust which inevitably sifted through the makeshift ceiling.”

Describing the construction of the bed, he says, “At the Cape, the craftsmen followed a middle of the road policy. The posters were turned or fluted and the bedhead or end was very often embossed with scrollwork and carving. The canopy, which was sometimes decorated with the shell or oakleaf motif, never reached the heights of extravagance it did in Europe.”

In her unpublished thesis, The interior of the Cape house, 1670 to 1714, submitted in May 1982, Carolyn Woodward gives detailed descriptions of the beds found in a Cape house during this period on pages 100 to 111. She found that the word “Ledekant” was used to describe a four-poster bed at the Cape. In the inventories there are several mentions of a “ledekant (four poster bed) met behangsel (canopy and curtains)” but the only indication of what it might look like was the mention of the colour.

After consulting several books on Cape furniture, namely, Cape Antique Furniture, Lennox van Onselen, 1959, Cape Furniture, M G Atmore, 1965, Cape Country Furniture, M Baraitser and A Oberholzer, 1971, Town Furniture of the Cape, M Baraitser an A Oberholzer, 1987, Cape Antique Furniture, M Baraitser and A Oberholzer, 2004 and Ou-Kaapse Meubels, Matilda Burden, 2013, we decided to go with a plain canopy with a scallop design.

The colours selected for dressing the bed were inspired by the Royal blue and Ochre glass in the happy door leading to the ensuite bathroom. The canopy was made using Royal Blue fabric trimmed with antique gold braid. We decided to replace the traditional heavy curtains around the bed with mosquito net. This, given that the function of the curtains would be more to keep out prying mosquitos during summer than for privacy. In a balmy summer, heavy curtains enclosing the bed might also prove unbearable. A mosquito net, however, would allow for comfortable ventilation while offering protection.

The curtains seen through the mosquito net

Dressing the bed gives us a sense of progress and completion in the ongoing Towerwater restoration project. Detailing the interior to match the exterior of the buildings, long formed part of the dream to restore and capture the essence of a Cape period house. Using period South African furniture, porcelain, fabrics and other design elements, made it a bit more challenging but so much more rewarding in the end.

Now we can go to bed in a dressed four-poster described as the king of beds and a bed fit for a king.