As a young man, Charles Honoré Lannuier fled his native Paris to escape the social and political chaos that followed the Revolution. After settling in America, he soon distinguished himself as one of the most talented cabinetmakers of the 19th century. Lannuier not only capitalized on America's attraction to the French style, he helped to refine it. His ornate creations became synonymous with wealth and taste, conferring prestige upon their newly prosperous owners. The sumptuous sleigh bed pictured here was designed by Lannuier around 1817.

Leslie Keno: This bed epitomizes the classical style in America.
Leigh Keno: It does, but at first glance you might think it was a French bed made in Paris in the highest style.
Leslie: Yes. The design is so overwhelmingly French, you have to do microanalysis to determine its American origins. Microanalysis reveals that the primary woods are mahogany, burl elm, and rosewood.
Leigh: And the secondary woods are white pine, maple, ash, and cherry—all indigenous to America.
Leslie: The quality is incredible. In addition to the different woods, it has gilded brass, die-stamped brass borders, gilded gesso, and vert antique, which is verdigris. When the bed was made, about 1817, American cabinet makers were looking to French Empire styles for inspiration. Charles Lannuier was influenced by design books from great French cabinetmakers, particularly Percier and Fontaine. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there's an 1812 engraving of a Percier and Fontaine design for the end of a bedstead that is very similar to this one.
Leigh: It makes sense. Charles Lannuier and his brother Nicolas worked for members of the royal family in Paris before they emigrated. They took the French Empire styles and streamlined it for wealthy American clients, many of them French émigrés who had also moved to avoid the political turmoil from the Revolution. During that period in American there were many Francophiles. In fact, in the early 1800s in Boston, there was a huge celebration and parade in honor of the late Louis XIV, the Sun King. Anything French was the rage in America.
Leslie: This bed is one of the most lavish New York pieces I've ever seen. It originally stood in the Albany mansion of Stephen Van Rensselaer IV and Harriet Bayard, who married on January 2, 1817. It's more than likely that Van Rensselaer had seen similar beds when he was visiting the French court.
Leigh: An American in Paris. The piece could have been executed to order to delight his bride. Shortly after their wedding, the couple moved into a newly built townhouse, fashionably appointed in the latest French taste. This was the bed they slept in, although it'd be hard to sleep with all these details. The bronze mounts were imported from France -
Leslie: - and the end of each crest rail is topped with a cap of quivers surrounded by foliage.
Leigh: There's a winged griffin, along with a ram's head.
Leslie: And a winged goddess with a horn below.
Leigh: The feet of the bed are dolphin's feet covered with verdigris to simulate antique bronze. It's patinated bronze, which turns green. The dolphins, goddesses, and griffins conjure images of ancient Rome, don't they?
Leslie: There was definitely a fascination with Greek and Roman antiquity because of the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum at the time, hence the "classical" period. But I think that the interest in ancient forms was aroused by Napoleon's 1798 campaign to Egypt, and furthered by resulting publications by different designers. Then the American designers, following the French, borrowed forms and design motifs from both ancient and modern civilizations and recombined them. The fabric, by the way, would probably have been extremely expensive, which is often true of early beds.
Leigh: Absolutely. A hallmark of the classical period is the richness and variety of the materials used. This bed would have had an almost rectilinear cushion, like a modern mattress, as well as a French-style rounded cylindrical cushion at each end.
Leslie: Early photographs of the bed show a canopy above it, hanging from a crown that was affixed to the wall. It created a wonderful tent for privacy.
Leigh: Its occupants might have thought that they had to do something spectacular in order to keep up with appearances. Or perhaps they were afraid the bed would upstage them. "You look great tonight, but look at that bronze mount!" Leslie: This is the kind of bed that Zeus would have slept in.
Leigh: Or maybe Aphrodite.