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14
LOUISIANA STUDIES
Summer
a r mo i r e. Be that as it may, Mallard's fame is foun- ? ded upon the notable adaptations he made of the bed, e. g. , his popular lit _a duchesse that was scaled in such monumental dimensions.
The lit _a colonnes was to remain popular with the Creoles long after the vogue of the four poster had passed in the North, for the towering posts of the bed had a utilitarian as well as an aesthetic function in the South. From the bed's posts was suspended the diaphanous netting that protected its occunants from the onslaughts of mosquitoes during the ng summer months. Mallard made more au courant the simple lines of the field bed or traditional tester bed by catering to the Victorian tastes of the ante-be11um C reo1es, producing beds with towering headboards, tufted and upholstered ha 1f-canopies , and collapsible posts at the foot--all scaled, of course, in gargantuan proportions (Fig. 5). Averaging from eight to ten feet in length, the bed was aften seven or eight feet wide. The low end-posts, jsually surmounted by a carved urn or some type of decorative finial, contained an extendable rod that : o u 1 d be pulled up at night by means of the finial. This rod, extended to its full length from within :he bedpost, supported the mosquito netting which ?jas draped from the half tester or canopy above the >ccupant's head. In the daytime, when the~mosquito letting was draped behind the high headboard, the 'od jere again lowered into the end-posts, con-:ealed by the decorative finials that blended with he carved ornamentation at the foot of the bed Fig .	6) .
Examples of Mallard's bedroom furniture, the lassive duchesse , the towering armoire _a glace , and he Louis XV-inspired dressing tab 1 e--marb1e topped ! n d e n c r u s t?e d with garlands of roses or festoons of ;rapes--are still extant in many homes in New Or-eans, St. Francisvi 11 e , Woodville, Natchez, and icksburg, and in many isolated plantations that ave yet to be stripped of their finery and allowed
o	decay.
The products of the ante-bellum cabinetmakers ay have small appeal today, for their huge dimen-ions (many a duchesse seems to have its headposts
Figure 5:	Mallard	bed,	four-poster,	full	tester