Why Did People Put Canopies Over Their Beds?

History

• Even members of the earliest civilizations created bedding upon which to sleep. In caves, there were pits padded with pine boughs. In later common rooms, surrounding the family hearth, peasants slept upon mattresses stuffed with straw while those who could afford to might have stuffed their bedding with wool or feathers. Wealthy Egyptians and Greeks of ancient times had elaborate raised furnishings that resembled low couches. By the Middle Ages, those of means had created raised bedsteads made of timber and posts set in a room's corner.

Privacy

• Beds were not originally housed in separate rooms. Instead, bedsteads constructed of timber were placed against a wall or in a corner of a room. The first canopies were not free-standing units, but rather bedsteads or testers that had fabric hanging from the ceiling to create the illusion of a room and a place for privacy. The headboard of a tester bed was divided into paneled sections that could further offer privacy, creating a room-within-a-room.

Warmth

• Headboard-only tester beds of the 14 century led to the creation of beds with two posts at the bed's foot and eventually to the four-poster beds with which most of us associate canopies. The posts were draped with heavy fabrics that offered continued privacy and warmth in the poorly heated and drafty homes of early history.

Status

• Much as furnishings of today are an indication of wealth, so too was the bedroom furniture of yesteryear. Four-poster canopy beds became more and more intricately constructed and carved as time went on. Some were inlaid with gold, and all were a symbol of their owners' status.