Polonaise Bed

Soon after his marriage in 1794, James Madison wrote James Monroe, then on a diplomatic mission to Paris, seeking French furniture to suit his new “situation,” including a second-hand bed with “a suit of handsome bed curtains.” In early 1796, “One bed complete (called “lit a la Polonaise”)”—“a bed of crimson damask, bedstead, & mattrassess”—was shipped from France with 80 French ells of damask. Strong documentary evidence indicates the bed was used in Mr. Madison’s Room during his declining years. The lit à la polonaise, or Polish bed, was fashionable in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, when the form was introduced to France by Maria Leszczy?ska, Polish queen consort of Louis XV. Marie Antoinette used such a bed, contributing to its popularity. The bed’s signature canopy and rich drapery fabrics are supported by curved, wrought iron stems, which join at a central crown. The use of wrought iron was partially derived from movable campaign furniture; initially used for traveling gentility and officers during military operations; collapsible furnishings provided the luxury and comforts of home. Contemporaries of the Madisons, like Stephen Van Rensselaer and Joseph Bonaparte, owned impressively draped beds with silk hangings, fringe, and tassels. This late eighteenth century beech bed was made in France in typical Louis XVI style. The curtains are in a crimson damask like the curtains Madison’s visitors described, reproduced from a neoclassical textile design ca. 1790.