Canopy Bed with Alcove

Original Language Title黄花梨拔步床

CultureChinese

Date16th century

MediumHuanghuali wood with 19th century painted soft wood base and canopy, silk gauze curtains, and silver hooks

DimensionsOverall: 91 × 86 1/4 × 84 1/4 inches (231.14 × 219.08 × 214 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number64-4/4

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionThis alcove bed is constructed in exactly the same way as a six-post testered bed with a corridor area to the front; the bed section is of flush-sided construction with a plain apron undecorated except for a small hip at each end shortly before the mitre to the leg which terminates in a plain horsehoof foot. The six posts that tenon into the frame are concave to the two outer surfaces and support the similarly molded horizontal rails that form the lower section of the cornice of eight pierced panels to the side and seven to the front, each divided by similarly molded uprights and framed by a long rail above. The front section, or corridor area, has two corner and tow inset posts of full height, between each of these are panels of slanted wan design. This is then repeated to the sides and back of the bed area with short panels to the front. The fret design is cleverly constructed in order to hide the end grain by mitering the front, concave surface and a half-lapping the reverse with a small parallel mitre in the corner with exposed tenons in the opposing member. The bed is unusually constructed with a removable soft seat frame which fits within an outer frame that is part of the construction of the bed. The base and tester are of softwood, probably jumu, and are painted with cranes and floral scroll. 17th century.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, Peoria, IL, February - December 1975.

Now I Lay Me Down to Eat: A Salute to the Unknown Art of Living, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NY, November 18, 1980 - February 22, 1981.

Gallery Label

This bed is the only surviving example of a Ming Dynasty alcove bed, the most elaborate form of canopy bed. Beds such as this were prized possessions of the lady of the house. She would not only sleep on the bed at night; during the day she might entertain guests from it or give orders to servants. Can you imagine the lady of the household serving tea to guests seated on the stools in the alcove? At night the light gauze drapes provided protection from insects, while allowing the breezes to penetrate. The swastika-like motifs represent the Chinese character for “ten thousand,” which symbolizes the wish for many sons. This bed was not built with nails, but joined together using mortise and tenons. In fact, the whole bed was designed to be easily dismantled if the household had to move.

Provenance

Acquired in Peking (modern-day Beijing) by Sydney Cooper, probably by 1937-ca. 1955 [1];

Purchased from Cooper by James P. (1917-2001) and Blanche Speer, II, Kansas City, MO, ca. 1955-1964 [2];

Purchased from James P. and Blanche Speer, II, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1964.

NOTES:

[1] According to Anita Christy, in “Not for Sale: A Few of Robert Ellsworth’s Favourite Possessions,” Orientations 22, no. 6 (June 1991): 58, Cooper “prior to the World War II put together one of the best furniture collections ever assembled in Beijing, which included a walk-in testered bed now at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.” The bed is described as in Cooper’s collection in Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture (Peking: Editions Henri Vetch, 1944), VIII, no. 26. A note in the Nelson-Atkins curatorial file, written by James P. Speer, II, indicates the bed was photographed in Cooper’s Peking home before Cooper brought it to the United States.

[2] According to James P. Speer, II, in a letter to the Nelson-Atkins, July 16, 1963, he purchased this bed from Cooper “some eight years ago.”

Published References

Gustav Ecke, Chinese Domestic Furniture (Peking: H. Vetch, 1944), pl. 37, 38, 39 (repro.).

Laurence Sickman et al., Chinese Domestic Furniture: a new gallery opened 17 November 1966, Nelson Gallery of Art, Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri (Kansas City, Missouri: The Museum, 1966), fig. 2 (repro.).

Archives of Asian Art, vol. xx (New York: Asia Society, 1966-67), 97, fig. 35 (repro.).

Ruth Davidson, “In The Museums,” in Antiques Magazine (November 1967), 733 (repro.).

Thomas Froncek, ed., et al., The Horizon Book of the Arts of China (New York: New York, American Heritage, 1969), 289 (repro.).

Robert H. Ellsworth, Chinese Furniture Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch’ing Dynasties (New York: Random House, 1971), 245, pl. 32, 32a (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Simplicity and Subtlety: The Decorative Arts in China” Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973), 63, no. 10 (repro.).

William C Ketchum, The Family Treasury of Antiques (New York: A & W Publishers, 1978) (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, “Chinese Classic Furniture,” Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1977-78, vol. 42 (London: Society, 1979), 6, a, b, c, 1-12 (repro.).

Michel Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, trans. Katherine Watson (Tokyo; New York: 1979), 84, pl. 114 (repro.).

Bernard Rudofsky, Now I Lay Me Down to Eat: Notes and Footnotes on The Lost Art of Living (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1980), 179 (repro.).

Sarah Handler, “The Chinese Bed,” in Orientations, vol. 15, no. 1 (Hong Kong: Pacific Communications, January 1984), 26-37 (repro.).

Wang Shixiang, Connoisseurship of Chinese Furniture; Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, vol. II: Plates (Hong Kong: Art Media Resources, Ltd., 1990), 13, 137, (repro.).

Sarah Handler, “A Little World Made Cunningly; the Chinese Canopy Bed,” in Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, vol. 2, no. 6 (Spring Quarter, 1992), 22, 23; figs. 23, 23a, 23b (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 343 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 359 (repro.).

Colin Mackenzie, with contributions by Ling-En Lu, Masterworks of Chinese art: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2011), 90-91, no. 24 (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.