Robert Bannister wrote:

On 21/10/12 1:36 AM, Peter Duncanson [BrE] wrote:

ObAUE: Is that drawn meaning open or drawn meaning closed?


Serious question: can "drawn" ever mean the curtains are open? I would
have thought that it had to be "drawn back" or "open" and that "drawn"
always meant they were closed.

This is different from the action of drawing and the verb to draw the
curtains, on the other hand, which are always ambiguous.

I looked through Google Books instances of "curtains were drawn" plus
the word "light," and I think you're usually right. If "drawn" is not
modified then it usually appears to mean closed, as in:

1820 -
being moved on the pillow by the nurse; she experienced great throbbing,
and intolerance of light and noise, -- the curtains were drawn, and the
bells in the house were ordered not to be rung.

1825 -
.... Every eatable that the season afforded, supplied the table -- the
curtains were drawn, and the chandeliers were illuminated with wax. The
transition from day- light, to this artificial splendor, exhilirated the
spirits of the guests, who

However, this one seems to go the other way:

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Page 246
Then he woke up and looked at the light. The curtains were drawn. He
listened to the loud wild calling of blackbirds and thrushes in the
wood. It would be a brilliant morning, about half past five, his hour
for rising.

I'm not sure what this means. He might have seen the light in the gaps
(chinks). It doesn't say he got out of bed to peer around the curtains.
If they were open because a maid had been there, she was darned early.
Maybe they had never been closed. Maybe they were even permanently tied
back.

--
Best -- Donna Richoux