Monday, January 18, 2016

Bedroom furnishings, early 1800s

Monday, January 18, 2016
Grecian style bed 1828

 Loretta reports:

Continuing my visual guide to Dukes Prefer Blondes*, I’m taking you into my heroine’s bedroom to look at a couple of its furnishings.

“The bed was a modern one in the Grecian style, with bare-breasted females supporting the bedposts. Apt enough. Lady Clara ought to have a pair of caryatids at the foot of the bed, guarding the goddess’s temple. Other Grecian-style articles looked on from the mantelpiece. An elaborate urn clock dominated the center. Cupid stood on its pedestal, pointing to the time on the revolving band encircling the urn.”—Dukes Prefer Blondes

This bed in Ackermann’s Repository for October 1828 was my inspiration.
Grecian style bed description
As to the clock: I was looking through Eric Bruton’s fascinating History of Clocks & Watches** when I came upon this lovely timekeeper from the late 1700s. According to the book, it’s in the Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague—unfortunately, closed, from what I could ascertain during my online search for a sharper image.

I found other annular clocks online, most from a later period.
This from c.1900.

This French 1850s one.

This one from the 1880s.

And this.

*Previous posts here and here and here and here.

**My 1989 edition of this wonderful book has provided inspiration for other watches and clocks in my stories, most notably the naughty pocket watch in Lord of Scoundrels.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

That's being wonderful prettiness!

Don't have anything like that at home, but my family IS in possession of a full suite of Cottage furniture. It belonged to my great-great-grandmother; it was made for her as a wedding gift in the 1840s.

 
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