{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O321690"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O321690/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LA6455/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LA6455/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018LA6455","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O321690/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O321690","accessionNumber":"1120A to D -1901","objectType":"Bed","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This rather simple bed, acquired in 1901, was to become deeply influential on several of the major designers of the 1930s, who copied it directly, or used the elegant outline of its heaboard to create similar beds with painted or gilded decoration.  By the end of the 1930s almost every make of beds produced the shape as a bed headboard, often upholstered in pastel shades and deeply buttoned, and such headboards can be bought to this day.  This is perhaps the strongest illustration from the furniture collection of the use of the V&amp;A as a source for designers. The bed itself dates from the second half of the 18th century and was probably made in Portugal. It in turn uses and develops earlier ideas.  The solid headboard is similar in shape to upholstered headboards on British state beds in the first twenty years of the 18th century, and the double-scrolled supports for the bedding, that rise at the foot end of the bed, are close in form to ones on British state beds of 1700-1720, although those were usually close-covered in silk damask. This form of shaped headboard in solid wood, or painted or gilded, was fashionable in both Spain and Portugal from 1750-1800.","physicalDescription":"A low bed, with headboard and low footposts carved in mahogany, the outline of the headboard serpentine and rising in the centre, the edges carved with trails of flowers, above legs that are of low cabriole form, carved with claw-and-ball feet, the edges of the legs with a raised moulding. The legs at the foot end are similar but rise, above the bed-rail as S-shaped posts, carved with mouldings and an out-scrolling upper edge. The rails, which are cut to take slats, are joined with iron bed screws.\n\nIt has been suggested (see comments) that this bed is made of 'vinhatico' or Madeiran mahogany (of the Lauraceae family), which came from Madeira and the Azores. This should be established by microscopic analysis.  The same name is now often give to a South Armerican speicies (<i>Plathymenia reticulata</i>) but this does have the same reddish appearance. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Mahogany","id":"AAT12221"},{"text":"Iron","id":"AAT11002"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Joinery","id":"x36614"},{"text":"Carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Mahogany or 'vinhatico', carved and joined, the rails fixed with iron bed screws","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[{"text":"Baroque","id":"AAT21147"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2018LA6455"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES341925"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341749"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341749"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341749"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bed headboard","id":""}],[{"text":"Bedpost","id":""}],[{"text":"Bedpost","id":""}],[{"text":"Bedpost","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Portugal","id":"x29941"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1750-1780","earliest":"1750-01-01","latest":"1780-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"70","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"57","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from departmental catalogue","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased in 1901 for £39. 18s.\n\nAn early photograph of the bed (neg. 33922) has a text identifying it as a Spanish bed of the first half of the 18th century.  For some years it was inexplicably labelled as English but the early identification is more sound.  This form of bed with a serpentine, shaped headboard in carved wood was made in both Spain and Portugal in the 18th century. A bed of similar form, but with slightly later ornament (with suggestions of the neo-classical) is displayed in the bedroom of Dom José at the Palácio Nacional de Queluz, Lisbon, and illustrated in Maria Inês Ferro, <u>Queluz</u>. London: Scala, 1997, p. 81.\n\nIn 1969 Martin Battersby identified this bed as the model for a large number of beds created by interior decorators, and later department stores, in the 1920s and 1930s.  See references below.  A very close copy was offered in a catalogue entitled <i>Authentic Tudor Reproductions of Old World Furniture</i>, published (undated, but probably 1925-1935) by The Tudor Manufacturing Co., Wooburn Green, High Wycombe (a copy is in departmental files).  In the 1930s Maple &amp; co. produced a version of the bed with a slightly more elaborate outline to the headboard, illustrated in their booklet <i>A Few Examples of Wood &amp; Metal Bedsteads on view in the showrooms of Maple &amp; Co. Tottenham Court Road..... </i>A photocopy of this is in the object file in the department. In 1938 the department store Liberty supplied a pair of twin beds with somewhat similar head and footboards to Dean Court, Devon.  See Ros Byam Shaw, 'Vestige Interest. Deans Court, Devon'.  <i>World of Interiors</i>, February 2016, illustrated p. 102. The photos here show both an image sent to the clients (close to the V&amp;A form) and the surviving beds (which are similar, but not as close). \n See Susanna Gooden, <i>At the Sign of the Fourposter. A History of Heal's</i>, published by Heal &amp; Co., London, 1984, p. 62 for illustrations of two such versions of the bed. This role as a model for reproductions had clearly started early in the life of the bed in the Museum.  \n\nIn 1951 R.A. Janes, Chairman and Nicholls &amp; Janes Ltd, High Wycombe, wrote his 'Wycombe Memories' in <u>The Cabinet Maker and Complete House Furnisher</u>, 4 August 1951:'My wife visiting the factory on day saw a pair of 3-ft. walnut beds that I had designed, based on a mahogany one in the Victoria and Albert Museum. She fell in love with them and it was impossible to satisfy her until she had a pair like them. This meant that we had to discard our old 5-ft wide double bed and take to sleeping apart in two single beds.' It seems highly likely that the bed referred to was 112-1901, as there are few historic mahogany beds in the Museum collection.  In the same year, Edward Wenham, in Old Furniture for Modern Rooms (London: G. Bell &amp; Sons Ltd.) illustrated a single bed on p. 182 that was very similar to 1120-1901 and may have been the design manufactured by Nicholls &amp; Janes. \n\nA photograph taken in Gallery 56 shows the bed on display, already without side rails. \n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bedhead of carved mahogany, the outline serpentine and rising in the centre, the edges carved with trails of flowers. Portuguese, 1750-1780","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Battersby, Martin, The Decorative 30s. London, Studio Vista, 1971. 1st paperback edition 1976, p. 79, illustrated with a line drawing of this bed. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Benn, H.P and Shapland, H.P., <i>The Nation's Treasures. Measured Drawings of Fine Old Furniture in the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent &amp; co. Ld and Benn Brothers Ltd., 1910, p. 17, pl. 25."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1120A-1901","1120B-1901","1120C-1901","1120D-1901"],"accessionNumberNum":"1120","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1901,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Bed headboard","Bedpost [1]","Bedpost [2]","Bedpost [3]"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-06-03","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}