Wall Panelling Corporation

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Though many still favoured the four-poster bed, of some fine imported wood, mostly mahogany, there were any amount of curious experiments in shape and construction as well as material. The draped top still continued in favour but the bottom of the bed had changed its shape. Towards the end of the century we find examples in various furniture catalogues of the most fantastic beds-oval and circular, and even a pair of twin beds with the same canopy `for summer use' illustrated in Sheraton's `Drawing Book'.

 

So varied were the styles of furnishings that it is impossible to do more than refer the interested reader to the books that give their original design.

 

From 1760 to 1800 Georgian interior design included the craze for the `pastoral' or rustic still engaged the attention of a great majority and a variety of quaint conceits appeared in and around the home to add charm and character to the property. This was an age when the wonders of clockwork and other machinery were manifold, the musical-box, the singing bird, the dancing peasants, were all elegant entertainments. Pagodas, Moorish summer-houses and ornamental lakes with gondolas and Chinese junks were frequently peopled by mechanised figures.
Curtains, hangings and soft furnishings generally, changed considerably during this period and this was due to the old ways of spinning and weaving being greatly improved by such things as Hargreaves' `Spinning Jenny' (1767), Crompton's `mule' (1775), and Cartwright's loom (1787). Each invention lessened the time and labour that had previously been spent in the manufacture of materials.

By 1775 the fashion for pattern in furnishing materials and curtains was beginning to die out. Stripes were the order of the day, and though clothes still carried a rich variety of floral embroideries and painted bouquets the sofa

 

RAMSBURY, WILTSHIRE