Life would be very boring if everybody wanted the same thing, so it is just as well we all have different tastes. The function of a bed could be solved with a mattress on the floor, and in many countries in the world this would be regarded as a luxury. Any culture capable of reading this has progressed from this stage in evolution, although it would be wonderful to eradicate poverty. People want more than a plain bed frame; they want a centrepiece of the room, probably the room in the house where they spend most time, albeit asleep. For many generations, the four-poster bed has been revered as the elite bed, many believing it to be the ultimate possession. Four-poster beds with or without canopies made in wood or metal are still extremely popular, with history playing an important part in how we feel about it.
There are two fields of thought relating to the four-poster bed, that of the British, and the Americans. In the U.K. (and Europe) we consider a four-poster bed to be a bed with four posts, cornice, high headboard and roof, but in the States, I understand this would be called a four-poster canopy bed. In the U.S. a four-poster bed is exactly that, a bed with four...