A sleigh bed is a style of bed with curved or scrolled foot and headboards, thus resembling a

sled A sled, skid, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle that slides across a surface, usually of ice or snow. It is built with either a smooth underside or a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners ...

or sleigh. Often made of wood and quite heavy, the sleigh bed is a result of the French and

American Empire American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest ...

period of the early 19th century. The

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

, and thus the American Empire style, drew its inspiration from the empires of ancient

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Today's sleigh beds are made from a variety of materials including wood, iron, steel and aluminum, and often possess less exaggerated curves of the foot and headboards. File:Bedstead MET DT2846.jpg, Bedstead (c. 1805/1808) by

Charles-Honoré Lannuier Charles-Honoré Lannuier, French cabinetmaker (1779–1819), lived and worked in New York City. In Lannuier's time, the style of his furniture was described as "French Antique." Today his work is classified primarily as Federal furniture, Neocla ...

, Classical galleries,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. File:Bedstead MET DT2850.jpg, Bedstead (c. 1805/1808) by

, detail. File:Sleigh bed, Spain, c. 1820 AD, mahogany, pine, bronze - Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas - Madrid, Spain - DSC08460.JPG, Sleigh bed (ca. 1820),

Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas The Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas (National Museum of Decorative Arts; originally, "National Museum of Industrial Arts") is located at 12 Montalbán Street, in Madrid, Spain, to the south of the Puerta de Alcalá and the western side of the ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. File:Langes Tannen Helgolandzimmer.JPG, Sleigh bed (c. 1820/1830) in the ''Helgoland room'', Museum Langes Tannen, Uetersen, Germany.

References

Beds {{furniture-stub