{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O371960"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O371960/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014GX1717/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014GX1717/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014GX1717","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011ET3220","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW5850","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW5853","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW5854","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW5855","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW5856","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW5857","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GX1718","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GX1719","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GX1720","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HN9525","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2021MY9860","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2021MY9863","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2021MY9861","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2021MY9862","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O371960/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O371960","accessionNumber":"W.45-1911","objectType":"Bed","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"From the 1660s fashionable beds were made by upholsterers.  The wooden structure of such a bed was a supporting structure only, for the lavish textiles and trimmings that created the form and ornament.  The grandest beds were hung with silk velvets, brocades or damasks.  Woollen fabrics were also used, for beds of slightly lower status.  On this bed, a woollen fabric known as moreen has been used. On the cornice and headboard the fabric has been glued directly to a carved wood form.  These areas and the free-hanging curtains and valances are both trimmed with braid, which would have been known as ‘lace’ at the time.  The counterpane, curtains and lower valances are modern replacements. The bed is said to have belonged to Sir John Mordaunt, who was Member of Parliament for Warwickshire from 1698 to 1721.  He lived at Walton Hall, Warwickshire but the bed many have been made for another house, perhaps in London. \r\n\r\nReturned from loan to The National Trust (Tredegar House) in 2018.","physicalDescription":"A bed with flying tester, the bedstead of beech with low, turned footposts, the hangings of watered wool (moreen or harateen), trimmed with green and white woollen braid in three widths, used to create scrolling motifs. \n\nThe cornice of the tester is formed of a series of moulded scrolls and is hung with valances of shaped outline; the ceentre of the tester shows a sunk cartouche in the middle framed by mouldings. The head of the bed, which is of scrolled outline with a vase-shaped finial in the middle, supports two slender fluted pilasters tapering upwards and having a scrolled pattern in braid on the headcloth, showing between them.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"moreen","id":"AAT132862"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"}],"techniques":[{"text":"turning","id":"AAT53158"},{"text":"joinery","id":"x36614"},{"text":"upholstery","id":"x37978"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved and turned wooden frame, with hangings of moreen (wool) with a watered design and ornament i green and white woollen braid of different widths","categories":[{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"}],"styles":[{"text":"baroque","id":"AAT21147"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2014GX1717","2011ET3220","2014GW5850","2014GW5853","2014GW5854","2014GW5855","2014GW5856","2014GW5857","2014GX1718","2014GX1719","2014GX1720","2015HN9525","2021MY9860","2021MY9863","2021MY9861","2021MY9862"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES340882"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340781"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340781"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340781"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"A002","id":"THES384090"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340781"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340781"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340781"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES340781"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341962"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341962"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341962"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341962"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341962"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341962"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES341962"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES343588"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES308735"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES308735"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES308735"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES308735"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"tester","id":"AAT40453"}],[{"text":"headboard","id":"AAT40447"}],[{"text":"headboard pilaster","id":""}],[{"text":"headboard pilaster","id":""}],[{"text":"Bedstock","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed screw","id":""}],[{"text":"Bed screw","id":""}],[{"text":"Bolt and washer","id":""}],[{"text":"Bolt and nut","id":""}],[{"text":"Headcloth","id":"AAT204190"}],[{"text":"Valance","id":"AAT204185"}],[{"text":"Valance","id":"AAT204185"}],[{"text":"Valance","id":"AAT204185"}],[{"text":"Valance","id":"AAT204185"}],[{"text":"Valance","id":"AAT204185"}],[{"text":"Valance","id":"AAT204185"}],[{"text":"Valance","id":"AAT204185"}],[{"text":"Curtain","id":"AAT204124"}],[{"text":"Curtain","id":"AAT204124"}],[{"text":"Curtain","id":"AAT204124"}],[{"text":"Curtain","id":"AAT204124"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"},{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1695","earliest":"1690-01-01","latest":"1699-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"A vernacular painted wood oak with similar design details (cut out, straight-sided recess on the underside of the tester, columns flanking the headboard and painted lappets forming an inner upper tester on the headboard) is in the collections at Temple Newsam House, Leeds (see Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, a catalogue of the Leeds collection in three volumes,  (Leeds, 1998), volume III, no. 666, pp. 545-546.  That bed carries the painted date of 1724 and was made for Francis and Anne Hall of Kirkbride, Cumbria.  This bed, of yeoman quality, must have been made some years after such design elements were fashionable in London and thus a date of about 1695 is likely for the V&amp;A bed, which seems likely to have been made in London and is possibly also related to a marriage in 1695."}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"NCOL.608:1-2021","id":"O1600181"},"association":"Reproduction"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"275.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"The height of the PR headpost is 274 cm, that of the PL headpost 275, reflecting a warping in the PR post."},{"dimension":"Width","value":"137.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"189.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Acquisition RP records the measurements as:\r\nHeight: 9'  0 1/2\"\r\nLength: 6'  2 1/8\"\r\nWidth: 4'  4\"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Said to have been made in the early years of the 18th century for Sir John Mordaunt 5th Bt., of Walton Hall, Warwickshire. He was born before 1649 and died in 1721. He inherited the baronetcy from his father in 1665. From 1698 to 1715 he was MP for Warwickshire.  In addition to Walton Hall he had a house in the parish of St James Westminster, near the back entrance to St James's Palace presumably until 1715.  He died in Kensington. It is likely that the bed was made in London and possibly for his second marriage in 1695 to Penelope Warburton, daughter of Sir George Warburton, !st baronet, with whom he was said to live in 'connubial contentment' and to be a doting father. He had earlier married Anne Risley in 1678, but she died in 1692, and in 1715 he married for the third time, Elizabeth Floyd. \n\nA very similar bed, with flying tester (as this bed originally had) is shown in the 'best chamber' of Dr William Stukeley's house in Grantham, in a drawing dated March 1729, published in Francesca Scoones, 'Dr William Stukeley's House at Grantham', in <u>The Georgian Group Journal</u>, vol. IX, 199, pp. 158-165, illus. p. 163. That bed shows a 'flying tester' bed, from the foot, with a shaped valance to the tester and the base of the bed, with an outlined design, presumably in braiding. On the headcloth are two pilasters, as on the V&amp;A bed, with a niche between that appears to be actual and not simply suggested by braiding (it is shaded in the drawing on the left-hand side.  The headboard is also shaped on the top edge, with ornament outlined in braiding. That drawing suggests a date before the 1720s for the V&amp;A bed. Looking at the bed as illustrated in Dr Stukeley's house, it is worth noting that the tester of the bed sat immediately against the ceiling. \r\n\r\nPurchased by the Museum from C.J. Woodward, The Lindens, 25 St Mary's Road, Harborne, Birmingham for £125. At the time of purchase the bed was at The Hollies, High St, Welford-on Avon (about four miles west of Stratford-on-Avon). Registered File MA/1/W 2877 (Nominal File: Woodward C.J.)  At the time of the purchase the bed was inspected by Oliver Brackett who reported that it was 'a walnut wood framework covered with red damask and hung with curtains'.  He believed that the bed had never had footposts but described it nevertheless as 'complete'.  He also noted that 'Additional curtains which should have hung each side of the head are now missing'.  A letter from the seller's nephew recorded more of the supposed history of the bed.  He recorded that it was conjecture that the bed had originally belonged to the Mordaunt family: 'My great-grandfather Harper Holtham, who built the house at Welford in 1795 and had the bedstead erected in it before the building was finished, was a farmer and immediately before coming into his new house had been for many years a tenant of a farm belonging to Sir John Mordaunt (6th Baronet, d. 1778).  This farm was, as I understand, near to Sir John Mordaunt's house, and there seems to have been as much intimacy and friendliness between the farmer and his landlord as the difference in their social position would allow. At anyrate [sic] the farmer's wife came in for some very fine satin petticoats which had once been Lady Mordaunt's and it seems to us a reasonable conjecture that the bedstead may also have come either by purchase or as a gift from the same source. In some leases which I have related to the farm mentioned above Sir John Mordaunt is described as \"of Walton in the County of Warwickshire, Baronet\". One lease is dated 1778 and the other 1785'.\n\nAt the time of acquisition, is was described as 'Much worn, faded and repaired'. \n\nOliver Brackett misidentified the fabric, which is a watered woollen cloth (moreen).  It is tempting to identify it as the 'best bed' belonging to the Mordaunts, which is mentioned in Elizabeth Hamilton, <i>The Mordaunts, an eighteenth century family</i> (London: Heinemann, 1965), where, on p. 10, Lord Mordaunt, writing to his second wife (Penelope, <i>née</i> Warburton) in London from his Norfolk estate (Massingham Parva) on 7 November 1698, bids her send his desk to the 'Joyner', who lived near Fetter Lane who was employed 'to make ye Boxes when your best Bed was sent to ye Countrie'.  By 'the country', he probably meant Walton Hall, as this was the main house; and, of course, it is close to the known source of the surviving bed. If this identification were correct, the bed would  have been made between 1695 (the date of Sir John's marriage to Penelope Warburton) and 1698. The book by Elizabeth Hamilton shows that the family were always pressed for money, so this relatively simple, but showy bed, may have been the'best bed', although a silk bed would have been the choice for a bed of the first quality.\n\nWalton Hall was entirely re-built in the 1860s and much enlarged. So far, no early image of it has been discovered. \n\nAt the time of acquisition it was recorded that the height of the bed had been slightly raised and that two of the curtains were modern. This may be correct, but the additions to the headposts may have been made as a repair rather than an extension.  As the bed was not made with footposts, it is impossible to be certain about this.   A photograph taken at the time of acquisition shows the bed with four curtains, all of which appear to be of the same date and which survive with the bed, although the correspondence with the earlier owner suggest that there may originally have been six curtains. \n\nFrom about 1950 the bed was on loan to Ham Houser. A photo, taken in the Duchess's bedchamber at Ham in 1949 , shows the bed with new base valances but the old curtains, and a counterpane that is unrelated to the bed. The 1959 edition of the 1950 guidebook shows the bed with its original curtains and a new base valance, plus a counterpane that was modelled on the wall hangings. By 1973 the bed was shown with its current, reproduction hangings and counterpane.  The bed moved to Tredegar House after 1974 when the house was restored by the National Trust and opened to the public after years of use as a school. The bed was returned to the V&amp;A in 2018.\n\n","historicalContext":"The bed is said to have been made for Sir John Mordaunt Bt who served as MP for Warwickshire from 1698-1721.  If this history is correct, it may have been made for Walton Hall or for a London house.","briefDescription":"A bed with flying tester, the bedstead of beech with low, turned footposts, the hangings of watered wool (moreen or harateen), trimmed with green and white woollen braid in three widths, used to create scrolling motifs. English, about 1700-1720","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cescinsky, Herbert and Gribble, Ernest R. <i>Early English Furniture and Woodwork</i> ( London: The Waverley Book Company Ltd., 1922), vol. I, p.370 and fig. 400"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":" 'Ham House' [guidebook]. HMSO for the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973 (3rd ed. of guidebook published in 1968) p. 17"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Thornton, Peter and Tomlin, Maurice, 'The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House'.  Furniture History, vol. XVI (1980).  The  bed is illustrated as fig. 62."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"West, Annabel, <i>Fringe, Frog and Tassel.  The Art of the Trimmings-Maker in Interior Decoration in Britain and Ireland</i> (London: Philip Wilson and the National Trust, 2019, ISBN 978 1 78130 075 6), p. 112, fig.29."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[{"text":"Walton Hall","id":"THES268958"}],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Mordaunt, John (Sir)","id":"AUTH333152"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"BED\nENGLISH; c. 1700\n\nThe tester, bedhead and headcloth of the original watered moreen, trimmed with galon.  The curtains, counterpane and lower valances are modern reproductions, based on the original colouring.\n\nFrom Walton, Warwickshire\nMuseum No. W.45-1911","date":{"text":"ca. 1971","earliest":"1966-01-01","latest":"1975-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["W.45:1-1911","W.45:2-1911","W.45:3-1911","W.45:4-1911","W.45:5-1911","W.45:6-1911","W.45:7-1911","W.45:8-1911","W.45:9-1911","W.45:10-1911","W.45:11-1911","W.45:12-1911","W.45:13-1911","W.45:14-1911","W.45:15-1911","W.45:16-1911","W.45:17-1911","W.45:18-1911","W.45:19-1911","W.45:20-1911","W.45:21-1911"],"accessionNumberNum":"45","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1911,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-01","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}