More importantly, it is – the Original bed!
The canopy bed—”lit à baldequin” -was made for the chateau of the Marquis d’Effiat, early in the 17th century. The bed and matching six armchairs remained in the Chateau d’Effiat until the 19th century when they were auctioned off. They are now at the Louvre.
Beds had become an important piece of furniture and this is a rare example of an original bed with its original embroidered crimson velvet.
The Marquis was a friend of Cardinal Richelieu who had a similar bed decorated with gold embroidered white satin.
Richelieu was a great supporter of the Marquis. He made him the special ambassador to England to arrange the marriage of Louis XIII’s sister Henrietta Marie to Charles, heir to the English throne. When the Marquis died, Richelieu became the protector of Effiat’s twelve year old son, the Marquis de Cinq-Mars.
When the Marquis de Cinq-Mars was nineteen, Richelieu introduced him to the melancholy King Louis XIII, planning to make him the king’s “favourite”. The plan worked very well with the king appointing him to the sought after positions in the court. Cinq-Mars, who was a party animal, tired of the king who was twice his age.
When Richelieu and the king opposed his plans to marry a woman of a higher station, Cinq-Mars joined in a treasonous plot against them which was discovered. He was arrested and decapitated. He was 22.
