{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O297421"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O297421/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KP4393/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KP4393/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018KP4393","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4391","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4392","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4394","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4395","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4396","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4397","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4398","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O297421/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O297421","accessionNumber":"1623&A-B-1903","objectType":"Bed front","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"In the last couple of decades of the 19th century the South Kensington Museum (now the V&amp;A) was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement and began to collect examples of traditional or vernacular furniture in addition to the high-style furniture which it had collected until that time.  This bed front is typical of its new interests. It comes from the sort of built-in bed that was traditional in Brittany as it was in many areas of Europe.  It was collected as an example of ornament, admired for its skilled turning of spindles that were formed into balustrades and circular motifs.  Curators in 1903 took no interest in the structure of the bed, which was simply left behind. Unfortunately, no record of the building from which it was taken is recorded, so we cannot be certain of its date or exactly which area of Brittany it came from.","physicalDescription":"Front panel from a built-in bed, of chestnut, with carved decoration and with balustrades and pierced roundels composed of small, turned balusters. \n\nThe bed front is raised on tall, rectangular legs, joined by a deep cross rail, the legs decorated with shallow, surface mouldings. The front is divided visually into four vertical panels, the central two of which form sliding doors, behind which is an entry board with serpentine top edge, of plain wood carved with a plain moulding to the top edge and with a central rosette of balusters which are set against the ground of the board rather than providing a pierced decoration.  This board, which was designed to hold the bedding in place, would origially have been loose.  Each of the four panels of the bed is divided horizontally into three square panels, the upper and lower with circular motifs of turned balusters (blind below and pierced above). These each show 12 turned balusters united centrally by a flat, turned boss. The central panels are each composed of three tiers of smaller turned balusters (16 on each tiers) set within narrow openings. Above the doors and flanking panels is a continuous frieze between a narrow, moulded architrave and cornice. The frieze shows four pierced roundels of balusters and two squares of three-tiers of turned balusters, these framing a shallow, arched niche. The framing sections of the front are heavily moulded.  The inner surfaces, which would have been within the built-in bed, are undecorated. \n\nThe bed was almost certainly originally painted.  Vermilion was a popular colour. The bedboard shows signs of old worm damage. One of the panels of the door is cracked.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"chestnut","id":"AAT12039"}],"techniques":[{"text":"joinery","id":"x36614"},{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"turning","id":"AAT53158"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oak or chestnut, with turned and carved decoration","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"}],"styles":[{"text":"Folk art","id":"x37225"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2018KP4393","2018KP4391","2018KP4392","2018KP4394","2018KP4395","2018KP4396","2018KP4397","2018KP4398"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340899"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES342074"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES342074"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bed front","id":""}],[{"text":"Door","id":""}],[{"text":"Door","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Brittany","id":"x29603"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1780-1820","earliest":"1780-01-01","latest":"1820-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"The date is suggested by reference to similar beds, including one dated 1802 (see History and References)."}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"206","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"185","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"14","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured 2018 by LM","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"It is difficult to date such beds because the traditional designs were repeated over many decades.  The roundels on this front, composed of turned balusters, derive from motifs first used in the reign of Louis XIII in the first half of the 17th century.  It seems that the balusters on such motifs became finer as the decades passed although the motif continued to be used into the early 19th century. \n\nThree bed-fronts with very similar decoration were illustrated in <i>Meubles peints de Bretagne, monochrome ou polychrome</i> by Yves Eugène Palamour and André Charles Le Bars (Institut Culturel de Bretagne: 2018), pp.290 - 311.  The first (no. 59) is from the reserve collections of the musée de Sainte Anne d'Auray (a museum of historic dress), the front from a 'lit clos' (box bed) with two sliding doors, of sweet chestnut, with the small spindles turned in boxwood. It has been reduced in height by about 30 cm and has lost its cornice. The whole front surface is painted vermilion, probably in oil paint, this surface believed to be original. The authors suggest that although the turning represents the style of Louis XIII of France (reigned 1610-1643\\0, the date of the bed front is likely to be of the late 18th or early 19th centuries. The exact provenance is unknown although it is likely to originate in the are of Saint-Anne-D'Auray. When the doors of this bed are opened one can see a fixed board, with some decoration, across the opaneing. Normally, such a board, designed to hold the bedding in place, would have been moveable. A number of such boards, originating from Iceland, were collected for the V&amp;A at the time that the V&amp;A acquired its Breton bed (see, for example, 8 and 10-1903 and 11 and 12-1903). Such a board was called an <i>arzel</i> in Breton.\nA second bed discussed (no. 60) also survives only as a front.  It has similar decoration and also shows two sliding doors.  It is also made of sweet chestnut, said to be of very high quality, with little movement in the wood. The panels and doors are painted vermilion, with some of the mouldings picked out in a turquoise blue; the small, turned spindles in boxwood, left the natural colour that has yellowed with age, are backed with paper painted green. One door has been repainted in bright colours.This bed is in a private collection. The motifs of small balusters, described in the publication as 'à galette' reflects still the style of Louis XIII, although its likely date is to the years around 1800. Such decoration was popular in various regions of Brittany.\nA third bed discussed (no. 65) , also from a private collection, appears to be free-standing and is now used as a cabinet. The open, central section would originally have been closed by a pair of curtains rather than doors (described as a <i>lit demi-clos</i>). It is dated 1802 and this gives grounds for a similar dating for the V&amp;A bed. The tall legs would have allowed a clothes chest to have been set in front of it, acting as a step into the bed. The double gallery is separable from the structure. The bed has been stripped of its original vermilion paint but traces remain in the pores of the wood. It is of particularly small dimension, only 1.70 metres in length.The roundels reflect a tradition from the period of Louis XIII, the curved tops to the panels of this bed to either side of the opening derive from early 18th century forms. Said to have come from Bignan in the Department of Morbihan in Brittany, just to the north of Vannes on the south coast. \n\nA modern bed of the late 19th century, with all these motifs carved in the headboard and footboard was sold by the Edinburgh auctioneer, Lyon &amp; Turnbull, on 14 January 2015 as lot 389, indicating the continuing popularity of the motifs. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Front panel from a built-in bed, of chestnut, with carved decoration and pierced roundels composed of small, turned balusters. ","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1623-1903","1623A-1903","1623B-1903"],"accessionNumberNum":"1623","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1903,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Bed front","Door [1]","Door [2]"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-22","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}