Curtains customarily were suspended from within the valance from bone or brass curtain rings on a rod or wire, and were drawn around the bed for privacy or warmth.
In the 17th century a valance was "A border of drapery hanging around the canopy of a bed.
The home carpenter can easily fashion one from a plain pine table, hung with a valance to match the other draperies.
Double-faced goods have the hems on the side on which they will show least, with any extra length turned over as a valance on the same side.
In hanging these more formal curtains the shaped valance is usually used with the curtains hanging straight at the sides of the window, so they can be drawn together at night.
A high room may have the curtains reach only to the sills with a valance across the top.
A valance connecting the side curtains and covering the top of the net curtains will also make the window seem broader.
Another method is to have the curtains simply parted in the center, either with a valance or without, and drawn back at the sides with heavy cords and tassels, or bands of the stuff.
In the front was an external valance of crimson velvet, richly laced and trimmed with tassels.
I heard a slipping sound, and a dead hand fell on the floor-lying outstretched, its palm turned upwards, showing beneath the valanceof the couch.
She stooped to take one in her hand, but as she was about to lift it something which seemed to have been dropped upon the floor, and to have rolled beneath the valance of the bed, touched her hand.
She bent and placed it within the shadow of the valance again, and as she felt it touch the hard oak of the polished floor her bosom rose with a soft sigh.
The room felt fresher and sweeter already; a bright fire burned in the polished grate; Hope had scoured the table and wiped the chairs, and the dirty quilt and valance had been sent to Mrs. Weatherley's to be washed.
Window stands and gypsy tables may be draped with some rich fabric, the surrounding valance being caught up in small festoons and fastened with bows or tassels, finished around the edge of the table with cord or quilted ribbon.
Heavy curtains of raw silk, Turcoman, and canton flannel, with a full valance at the top, are used for the window drapery.
The valance or flounce around the lower part of the bed is cut wide enough to allow for hemming at the bottom and to turn in at the top.
A fluffy canopy and valance (or flounce) of flowered or striped white muslin will improve it wonderfully.
It was a chintz valance with birds of paradise patterned on its pink background, and there was pink silk quilled into the quaint tester overhead, reminding her of old Jeremy's favorite quill dahlias.
She felt that she would surely die if anyone should notice that the bonnet was gone, or happen to lift the valance and find her sitting there with it on her head.
The valance was lifted and disclosed a large quarter cask and several kegs full of rum, which were taken up and deposited outside.
Inside, at the furthest end, stood a large-sized bedstead, white and clean to outward appearance, with a deep valance running round the foot.
So tall was the bed, that three steps were required to ascend it, and the space thus left between the mahogany and the floor, was hidden by a valance of white dimity, garnished with wide cotton fringe.
They should be drawn back at each side of the window and the space between at the top filled by a valance about a foot deep, perhaps deeper if the window is very high.
This valance should have the border stencilled upon it and should be tacked just underneath the edge of the curtains.
Sometimes, as in the illustration in Plate IV, a valance running across the entire width of the window is used.
I felt at the side, and discovered that what had appeared to me from beneath to be the ordinary light canopy of a four-post bed was in reality a thick, broad mattress, the substance of which was concealed by the valance and its fringe.
The dull, black, frowzy outline of thevalance above me was within an inch of being parallel with his waist.
To put over this, make a thinner cushion, of hair, cover it with furniture-calico, and fasten to it a valance reaching to the floor.
An old champaigne basket, fitted up with a cushion on the lid, and a valance fastened to it to cover the sides, can be used for the same purpose.
His corps was at Valance when he joined it; and he mingled, more largely than might have been expected from his previous habits, in the cultivated society of the place.
At Valance he found the officers of his regiment divided, as all the world then was, into two parties; the lovers of the French Monarchy, and those who desired its overthrow.
Scott stooped, and raised the valancewith the greatest precaution.
One evening she was making her usual round, armed with a tennis racket for protection, and was peeping under the bed, when she suddenly let the valance fall hurriedly, and drew back with a shriek.
Over the bedstead was {513} placed a cloth of state of the same as the valance and headcloth of the bedstead, upon which stood a silver gilt coffin raised a foot or more at the head than at the feet, and in the coffin lay Philip IV.
The bedstead was of silver, the valance and headcloth of gold wrought in flowers with crimson silk.
The dull, black, frowsy outline of the valance above me was within an inch of being parallel with his waist.
Every time she spoke to him, he ran under the bed, stuck his little head out from under the valance and peeped for me to come to him.
Then I would lift up the valance of the bed and find him stretched out full length, looking as happy and lamblike as though there was not a bird anywhere near.
Paddy howled, and I lifted a corner of the valanceto see what was transpiring.
I wriggled down to gain another view, and when I cautiously lifted an edge of the valance my eyes met the strangest sight ever seen in all England.
I felt at the sides, and discovered that what had appeared to me from beneath to be the ordinary light canopy of a four-post bed was in reality a thick, broad mattress, the substance of which was concealed by the valance and its fringe.
They lifted the heavy valance and one got upon his knees and prodded beneath with his sword.
And she saw the pale blinds drawn down behind the dressing-table, and the valance at the top, and the draped curtains; and herself darkly in the glass.
There was a hesitating movement on the unseen stairs above, and then Hilda could see Sarah Gailey's felt slippers and the valance of her skirt.
The valancedropped again behind Mr. Ledbetter, and he rose from all-fours and held up his hands.
Beneath the edge of the valance a strip of carpet was visible, and, by cautiously depressing his eye, Mr. Ledbetter found that this strip broadened until the whole area of the floor came into view.
Very cautiously Mr. Ledbetter shifted his hand forward, projected a pioneer finger, and began to lift the valance immediately next his eye.
The minute apertures between the stitches of the fabric of the valance admitted a certain amount of light, but permitted no peeping.
His boots were good stout boots; the shadows of his legs upon the valance suggested a formidable stoutness of aspect.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "valance" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
