Le Lit dit de Henri IV du château de Pailhès en Ariège. Histoire, restaurations et perspectives

Abstract

Before becoming King of France, Henri IV was King of Navarre under the name of Henri III, Count of Foix. Although he never really resided in this county of Foix, he stayed there on several occasions between 1572 and 1578. Up to 1990, the Pailhès castle, situated to the north of the town of Foix, kept a remarkable seventeenth-century bed. The sovereign had a special relationship with Jacques de Villemur-Pailhès and appointed him governor of the county in 1566. So the creation of a bed chamber for the King in the castle is not altogether surprising, and bears witness to the prestige of this particular seigniory. Up to today, no document has been found to give us information as to the date of the construction of the bed or its installation. Held today by the Chateau de Foix, the bed underwent an important operation of restoration from 1994 to 1998, dealing both with its bed frame structure and its textile components. The study of the bed shows that it was a composite object. The wooden frame was readapted at an unknown date and then again during its restoration, in order to adapt the two textile elements it comprises. The outer awning, with a herringbone pattern, dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century whilst the inner textiles—the quilt, backrest, the bed base and the canopy covering—are in padded silk satin embroidered with coloured silk thread and decorated with velvet applications and ornamental trimmings. A new museum is presently being prepared at the Chateau de Foix and the bed is being studied and restored again to be exhibited in a period room which will evoke a stately bed chamber in the south of France in the seventeenth century. The way the bed will be exhibited and lit will of course be properly adapted to the conservation requirements of the textiles.

Keywords

• restoration
• lighting
• bed
• embroidery
• Ariège
• Pailhès