Nicola here and today I’m talking about curtains. I think the topic popped into my mind when I was lying awake early this morning reflecting on the fact that now it’s lighter in the mornings, I’m going to need to get some thicker curtains to ensure I get my required eight hours sleep! Either that or I could resort to what our ancestors did and have a curtained bed instead of curtains at the window (or both.) It fascinates me to think that we are still using a way of keeping light out and warmth in that was invented hundreds of years ago.
Windows have perhaps entered our consciousness more because of lockdown. We’ve been spending more time looking out of them at the world outside than we might normally do. Often this view is framed by a blind or a curtain or a shutter, some sort of covering that offers privacy and keeps light and draughts out.
The first curtains were apparently hung from doorways and known as portieres. Evidence from the Ancient Roman and Greek worlds 
show curtains hung on metal rods above arches that acted as room dividers. Window curtains were a much later invention. The earliest form of medieval window covering, in England at least, was a wooden shutter or later, a leather panel threaded onto an iron rod. The word window comes from the Anglo-Saxon “vindr eage” meaning wind’s eye, so you can see why a curtain might be needed to block it out. It’s a very descriptive word!
It was the invention of window glass in the 13th century that turned an item that had been a practical way to cover an opening into something that could be decorative as well as useful. This did not mean, however, that curtains were common in the medieval period. In fact you were far more likely to find them around a medieval bed than at a window. A record from 1400 gives details of bed curtains at Dartington Hall. Each bed had three curtains of various different materials and quality: the richest was called tartarin and was silk or brocade dyed in vibrant colours. The less posh beds had worsted hangings or ones made of “card” which was a sort of linen. The state bed shown here, at Dyrham Park, really was fit for a Queen.
It was different if you were royal or noble, of course. In 1530, Greenwich palace had satin window curtains in black, purple and white. Yet even Bess of Hardwick at Hardwick Hall only had curtains in her bedroom not in any other part of the house. They were scarlet though!
Many houses, especially down the social scale, had wooden shutters well into the 18th century. Sometimes these were popular even in higher status buildings where it was simply more practical to have shutters than curtains. However by 1720 curtains were 
becoming more common and the style of pairing two matching ones and hanging them from a rail was replaced by a more modern fashion: Pull up festoon blinds, which needed 5 pulleys to operate them. These were considered smarter and more modern. They also required fancy pelmets to hide the working mechanisms. A marvellous story is told by Maureen Waller in her book “1700” that thieves used special hooks to poke through the windows of rich houses and pull out the curtains as the fabric material was very valuable!
By the end of the 18th century, festoons were out of fashion and paired curtains were back in, but this time with lots of extra swags, drapes, tassels and fringes. Curtains often had two layers, an outer one that was more lightweight and decorative, and an inner one that was heavier for insulation.
The Victorians took this idea of insulating a step further with very thick and cosy curtains that created a “world within” the house. They tended to be heavy and dark, very opulent and often made of velvet. On a bright summer day, however, it must have been rather oppressive to step into such a darkened room.
So there were curtains around beds and sometimes at the windows… Let’s not forget the early 
carriages, which had curtains from the medieval period onwards. Because you had to be exceptionally rich to afford a medieval coach, they were dressed up like mini moving palaces with silk curtains on the inside and leather ones on the outside in keeping with the other costly internal decoration. By the Victorian era, when this Craven carriage was made, the coach had glass windows but the interior was still decorated with a blind and matching blue velvet seats!
One thing I love is looking at curtains in paintings. Sometimes they are there to frame a view from the window. At other times they are part of the symbolism of the painting itself. How many portraits of 17th century royalty or nobility I've seen where they are posing next to a long window draped in a gold curtain! Here is Prince Rupert of the Rhine demonstrating!
When it comes to window dressing, what do you prefer? Cosy curtains, blinds, shutters or something else? Do you like to have the light pouring in or do you prefer to have total darkness for sleeping? And have you ever slept in a curtained bed?
