{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O297213"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O297213/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JT9379/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017JT9379/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017JT9379","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O297213/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O297213","accessionNumber":"CIRC.238:1 to 15-1958","objectType":"Bed","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"In 1861 the designer William Morris founded a firm with friends from the group of artists known as Pre-Raphaelites.  Their intention was to produce furniture, textiles and other furnishings that reflected medieval forms and ornament and respected hand craftsmanship. In 1875 Morris took over personal ownership of the company, which continued to provide furnishings in the Arts and Crafts taste until 1940.  This bed was almost certainly made in about 1883-1886 for a house in Queen's Gate, Kensington, designed by the architect Richard Norman Shaw for the family of a prosperous barrister, who was a keen collector and connoisseur of art.  The bed was originally hung with the printed cotton design known as 'Strawberry Thief'. That design was first registered in 1883 and became one of Morris &amp; Co.'s most popular designs. The curving tester or canopy is similar to ones seen above beds and thrones in medieval manuscript illustrations.","physicalDescription":"A half-tester bed of stained oak with carved decoration overall of formalised flower heads within panels. The posts of the bed are turned, the tester with a curved coving supported by pierced spandrel brackets. The footboard shows an arcaded top edge.\n<u>Headboard</u>\nThe headboard is supported between two full-height posts, turned and reeded.  These are joined by a low bed rail and by a plain wooden panel at pillow height. The gap between these two sections suggests that the bed was originally fitted with a box mattress, which would have filled the gap and prevented bedding from falling through. A shallow horsehair mattress would have been used over such a base. There is another gap above the pillow-height board and this would almost certainly have been fitted with a textile hanging. At head height the posts of the headboard are joined by another panel.  This is of frame and panel construction, with three panels of carved diaper work of formalised quatrefoil flower heads, the muntins with reeded decoration.  Metal fixings at the top of the posts were almost certainly for textile hangings. The bottom of each rail is hollow chamfered on the lower edges. The bed rail is cut on the top surface with a central recess (5.8 cm wide, 3.5 cm high and 3.5 cm deep) for a central strut that would have run the length of the bed. The base of each post is hollowed out underneath to a height of 1.5 cm and a diameter of 5.5 cm to recieve the circular base plate of a brass-plated iron castor, fixed up into the post with three screws (thid is missing on the PR post).\n\n<u>Footboard</u>\nThe foot board is of turned and carved oak, between two massive turned posts, decorated with horizontal reeding alternating with plain, baluster-turned sections and plain octagonal sections (where the top and mid rails are tenoned into the posts). At the height of the bed rail the posts are left square in section to allow for strong tenoning of the rail. The bottom of each rail is hollow chamfered on the lower edges. The base of each post is hollowed out and fitted with a castor in the same way as the posts of the headboard. The top edge of the bed rail is channelled to house a thinner panel, approximatly 1 cm thick and 30 cm high, which is also housed in channels cut in the inner surfaces of the posts. The foot face panel is carved with quatrefoils in the same manner as the main panel on the headboard. At the top this panel is also channeled into the underside of the mid-rail, which is tenoned between the posts. The foot face of the rail is carved with a moulding of three reeds and the upper and lower edges are cut back in a curving chamfer. Above the mid-rial is an open, arcaded panel, the arches supported on turned pillars, the bases of which are dowelled into the top of the top of the mid-rail. The pillars show an inverted cup shape between reeded turnings. The arches of the arcade are cut from a single board, the nine semi-circular arches approximately 14 cm in diameter, the edges chamfered, with a collar left above each pillar to suggest a capital. The board is framed into the posts and the underside of the top rail, which is tenoned into the posts, its top edge rounded. On the head face of the footboard the posts are fully decorated, as is the section down to and including the mid rail, the decoration repeating that on the foot face. The lower panel is plain on this side, as is the bed rail. This is cut with a recess in the centre of the top mirroring the one on the bed rail of the headboard.\n\n<u>Tester</u>\nAt the top of the headboard is a lightweight curved coving of six plain, vertical panels between muntins carved with recessed centre panels. The coing curves forward, forming a ceiling under the half tester.  The tester is headed by substantial rails on four sides (the side rails and front rail moulded). These rails are tenoned into the posts of the headboard and, at the front, into short, vertical posts, square-sectioned , chamfered top and bottom, with turned ball finials at top and bottom, projecting above the tester and reflecting the turned ball finials that cap the posts of the headboard. The front hanging posts are 49 cm tall. The sides of the tester are filled with pierced spandrel panels, roughly triangular in shape, the front, diagonal edge each curving up from the head post to the underside of the tester. Behind the moulded rail of the diagonal edge the spandrels are formed of arcading of round-arches and turned pillars, following the form of the top section of the footboard, but with the arches graded in size to fill the triangular space. The solid wood which forms the arches is rebated into the foot face of the head posts and into the underside of the rails of the tester. \n\n<u>Rails</u>\nThe side rails of the bed are plain.  They are fixed to the posts with tapering metal fixings that had become standard in beds by the second half of the 19th century. Cast-iron plates 11 cmm x 4cm are screwed into the foot face of the head posts and head faces of the foot posts at bed rail height, each fixed by six machine-made screws. These plates are each cast witha shallow triangular tang, 1.5 cm wide at the top and tapering to 2 cm at the base.  These engage with corresponding plates set at either end of the side rails, these cast with recessed areas that fit over the tangs on the posts on the plates. \n\nThe height to the top of a mattress is estimated at 58 cm and this is supported by marks on the PR footpost.\nThe height to the top of bedding would have been approximately 71 cm, the height of the lower edge of the arcading on the footboard. ","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Morris & Co.","id":"A1365"},"association":{"text":"manufacturer","id":"x33306"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"joinery","id":"x36614"},{"text":"turning","id":"AAT53158"},{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak, turned, carved and dark-stained","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"}],"styles":[{"text":"Gothic revival","id":"AAT21452"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2017JT9379"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES341285"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES341285"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES341285"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341263"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Foot board","id":""}],[{"text":"Spandrel panel","id":""}],[{"text":"Spandrel panel","id":""}],[{"text":"Headboard","id":""}],[{"text":"Panel from a tester","id":""}],[{"text":"Panel from a tester","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed rail","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed rail","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed screw","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed screw","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed screw","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed screw","id":""}],[{"text":"Strut","id":""}],[{"text":"Strut","id":""}],[{"text":"Rail","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1883-1886","earliest":"1883-01-01","latest":"1886-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"1886 was the date when the Makin family moved into 180 Queen's Gate, but it is possible that the bed had been purchased earlier for their house in Palace Gate.  It was said to have been hung with 'Strawberry Thief' printed cotton by Morris & Co, a design that was first registered in May 1883, so it may be thought unlikely that it was acquired before that date. "}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"278","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"overall"},{"dimension":"Length","value":"210.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"overall"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"151.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"overall"},{"dimension":"Height","value":"40.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"height of bed rails above floor"}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Rashdall May[?] 5/24\r\n264","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed on label nailed to the back of the headboard. The significance is unknown"}],"objectHistory":"Sold to the Museum in 1958 for £5 by Miss Dominica Legg, Edinburgh as noted in Registered File 58/546.  The bed was formerly in the possession of H.F. Makins, whose house, 180 Queen's Gate, London, was designed by the architect Richard Norman Shaw, in 1883 and first occupied in 1886. The house had Morris wallpapers and curtains and the bed had hangings of 'Strawberry Thief' cotton, one of Morris's most famous and expensive designs, of which several printings made at different dates are in the V&amp;A Collections (for example, T.586-1919). \n\nThe houses in the area of 180 Queen's Gate were built on the site of the NW wing of the 1862 International Exhibition building.  The Commissioners who owned the land required that the houses built there be of 'architectural distinction' and most of them were in the then fashionable 'Queen Anne' style, with details such derived from earlier English and Flemish houses (See the <i>Survey of London</i>, vol. 138, pp. 325-348). H.F. Makin, a 42-year-old barrister, had already built a stylish house at 8 Palace Gate.  He commissioned his new house from the architect Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912) who had already built one house in the street.  Makin was a collector and connoisseur, and a patron of the artist Millais, who lived close by. The family lived there from 1886 until the mid-20th century when the land was acquired for an extension to Imperial College and the house was demolished in 1969. A few photographs of the exterior and interiors were published in the <i>Survey of London,</i> but none of the bedrooms.\n\nThe bed incurred damage to the joint between the headboard and the curved coving in 1990. In 2004 conservation of the bed was undertaken and measured drawings were made by a conservation intern. These are in departmental files.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"A half-tester bed of stained oak with carved decoration overall of formalised flower heads within panels. The posts of the bed are turned, the tester with a curved coving supported by pierced spandrel brackets. The footboard shows an arcaded top edge. Morris & Co.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.238:1-1958","CIRC.238:2-1958","CIRC.238:3-1958","CIRC.238:4-1958","CIRC.238:5-1958","CIRC.238:6-1958","CIRC.238:7-1958","CIRC.238:8-1958","CIRC.238:9-1958","CIRC.238:10-1958","CIRC.238:11-1958","CIRC.238:12-1958","CIRC.238:13-1958","CIRC.238:14-1958","CIRC.238:15-1958"],"accessionNumberNum":"238","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1958,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Foot board","Spandrel panel [1]","Spandrel panel [2]","Headboard","Panel from a tester [1]","Panel from a tester [2]","Bed rail [1]","Bed rail [2]","Bed screw [1]","Bed screw [2]","Bed screw [3]","Bed screw [4]","Strut [1]","Strut [2]","Rail"],"assets":["2019LN6488","2019LN6487","2019LN6079","2019LN5615","2019LN5614","2019LN5312","2019LN5065","2019LN3998","2019LN3997","2019LP8843","2019LR6679","2019LR3868","2019LR3844","2019LR3839","2019LR3815","2019LR3791","2019LR3790","2019LR3766","2019LR3738","2019LU5839","2019LT8864","2019LT8330","2019LX0681","2019LW9206","2019LW5414","2019LW4344","2019LW2913","2019LW2075","2019LV9699"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-22","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}