Golden Bed

Last updated
The Golden Bed
The Golden Bed, William Burges.jpg
The Golden Bed in its original location, the Guest Bedroom at The Tower House
Designer William Burges
Date1879;144 years ago (1879)
Made inLondon, England
MaterialsMahogany & pine, painted and gilt
Style / traditionHigh Victorian Gothic,
Pre-Raphaelite
Height193 cm
Width157 cm
Depth228 cm
Collection Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Golden Bed is a bed designed by the English architect and designer William Burges in 1879 for the guest bedroom of the home that he designed for himself in Holland Park, The Tower House. It is now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in South Kensington. [1] The bed was made by John Walden and carved by Thomas Nicholls. The painting in the central panel of the headboard was executed by Henry Holiday, and the motifs and figures on the bed painted by Fred Weekes. [1] The bed is made from polished hardwood, mahogany and pine. [1]

Contents

The theme for the guest room has been variously described as 'The Earth and Her Productions' [2] and 'Vita Nova' ('New Life'). [1] The Golden Bed matched the rest of the furniture designed for the guest bedroom, in keeping with the room's decorative scheme. [1]

Design

The Golden Bed is a large bed, measuring 2.28 metres (7.5 ft) long, 1.93 metres (6.3 ft) high and 1.57 metres (5.2 ft) wide. [1] It is made from wood, gilded gold. The bed is decorated with carvings and 'fragments of illuminated manuscripts under glass and rock crystal'. [1] Two mirrors are inset into the headboard, which features a painting by Thomas Weekes of the Judgement of Paris at its centre. [1] The three gods in the 'Judgement of Paris' are wearing clothes of the 13th-century, with Mercury standing to the left of Paris, with Venus bowing to Paris on the right. [1] The painting had previously been part of a larger painted panel at Burges' rooms in Buckingham Street, where he had lived before Tower House. [3] The sideboards of the bed are ornamented with glass covering pieces of illuminated vellum and fragments of textiles. [1] Grotesque figures, of a female and male, feature in the side brackets at the head of the bed. The bed head and foot posts are surmounted by half orbs of rock crystal. [1]

The foot of the bed is inscribed with the Latin phrase 'VITA NOVA' ('New Life'), with the posts of the bed inscribed 'WILLIAM BURGES ME FIERI FECIT' ('William Burges Made Me') on the right, and 'ANNO DOMINI MDCCCLXXIX' ('In the Year of Our Lord 1879') on the left. [1]

History

The estimate book Burges used for Tower House records the bed on 12 March 1879 as costing £39 13s (equivalent to £3,833in 2021). [4] Thomas Nicholls carving for the bed is marked by a payment of £15 15s in June that year (equivalent to £1,474in 2021). [4]

From 1952 to 1953 the Exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts was held at the V&A, at which the Golden Bed and an accompanying washstand, also from the guest bedroom at The Tower House, were lent for display. [1] Oliver Poole, 1st Baron Poole was originally asked to lend the bed but Poole subsequently requested that Colonel T.H. Minshall D.S.O. be acknowledged as the owner. [1] Minshall had owned Tower House in the 1920s. [5] Poole and his mother, Mrs. Minshall, later agreed to donate the bed and washstand to the V&A in the name of Colonel Minshall. [1]

In 2002 the Golden Bed was lent to Knightshayes Court in Tiverton, Devon, by the V&A. [1] Knightshayes Court had been built by Burges from 1867 to 1874. [6] The bed joined a wardrobe designed by Burges on loan from Tower House in a newly created 'Burges room' at Knightshayes Court. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kensington Palace</span> Residence of the British royal family in London

Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British royal family since the 17th century, and is currently the official London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castell Coch</span> 19th-century Gothic Revival castle in Tongwynlais, Wales

Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of Tongwynlais in South Wales. The first castle on the site was built by the Normans after 1081 to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the Taff Gorge. Abandoned shortly afterwards, the castle's earth motte was reused by Gilbert de Clare as the basis for a new stone fortification, which he built between 1267 and 1277 to control his freshly annexed Welsh lands. This castle may have been destroyed in the native Welsh rebellion of 1314. In 1760, the castle ruins were acquired by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, as part of a marriage settlement that brought the family vast estates in South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedroom</span> Private room where people usually sleep for the night or relax during the day

A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterised by its usage for sleeping and sexual activity. A typical western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds, a clothes closet, and bedside table and dressing table, both of which usually contain drawers. Except in bungalows, ranch style homes, ground floor apartments, or one-storey motels, bedrooms are usually on one of the floors of a dwelling that is above ground level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Holiday</span> British artist (1839–1927)

Henry Holiday was an English Victorian painter of historical genre and landscapes, also a stained-glass designer, illustrator, and sculptor. He was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, many of whom he knew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bed</span> Piece of furniture used as a place to sleep or relax

A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral</span> Gothic Revival three-spire cathedral in Cork, Ireland

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral is a Gothic Revival three-spire Church of Ireland cathedral in the city of Cork. It is located on the south bank of the River Lee and dedicated to Finbarr of Cork, patron saint of the city. Formerly the sole cathedral of the Diocese of Cork, it is now one of three co-cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Christian use of the site dates back 7th-century AD when, according to local lore, Finbarr of Cork founded a monastery. The original building survived until the 12th century, when it either fell into disuse or was destroyed during the Norman invasion of Ireland. Around 1536, during the Protestant Reformation, the cathedral became part of the established church, later known as the Church of Ireland. The previous building was constructed in the 1730s, but was widely regarded as plain and featureless.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knightshayes Court</span> Victorian country house in Devon, England

Knightshayes Court is a Victorian country house near Tiverton, Devon, England, designed by William Burges for the Heathcoat-Amory family. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "an eloquent expression of High Victorian ideals in a country house of moderate size." The house is Grade I listed. The gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Burges</span> English Gothic revival architect and designer (1827–1881)

William Burges was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoclassical architectural style and re-establish the architectural and social values of a utopian medieval England. Burges stands within the tradition of the Gothic Revival, his works echoing those of the Pre-Raphaelites and heralding those of the Arts and Crafts movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tower House</span> Late-Victorian townhouse in London, England

The Tower House, 29 Melbury Road, is a late-Victorian townhouse in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, London, built by the architect and designer William Burges as his home. Designed between 1875 and 1881, in the French Gothic Revival style, it was described by the architectural historian J. Mordaunt Crook as "the most complete example of a medieval secular interior produced by the Gothic Revival, and the last". The house is built of red brick, with Bath stone dressings and green roof slates from Cumbria, and has a distinctive cylindrical tower and conical roof. The ground floor contains a drawing room, a dining room and a library, while the first floor has two bedrooms and an armoury. Its exterior and the interior echo elements of Burges's earlier work, particularly Park House in Cardiff and Castell Coch. It was designated a Grade I listed building in 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal Wall</span> Grade I listed structure in Cardiff, Wales

The Animal Wall is a sculptured wall depicting 15 animals in the Castle Quarter of the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It stands to the west of the entrance to Cardiff Castle, having been moved from its original position in front of the castle in the early 1930s. The design for the wall was conceived by William Burges, architect to the third Marquess of Bute, during Burges's reconstruction of the castle in the 1860s, but it was not executed until the late 1880s/early 1890s. This work, which included the original nine animal sculptures, all undertaken by Burges's favourite sculptor, Thomas Nicholls, was carried out under the direction of William Frame, who had previously assisted Burges at both Cardiff Castle and at Castell Coch. When the wall was moved in the early 20th century, the fourth Marquess commissioned Alexander Carrick to carve a further six sculptures to sit on the extended wall which now fronted Bute Park. The Animal Wall is a Grade I listed structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gayhurst House</span> Country house in Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire, UK

Gayhurst House is a late-Elizabethan country house in Buckinghamshire. It is located near the village of Gayhurst, several kilometres north of Milton Keynes. The earliest house dates from the 1520s. In 1597 it was greatly expanded by William Moulsoe. His son-in-law, Everard Digby, completed the rebuilding, prior to his execution in 1606 for participating in the Gunpowder Plot. The house was subsequently owned by the Wrightes, and latterly the Carringtons. Robert Carrington engaged William Burges who undertook much remodelling of both the house and the estate, although his plans for Gayhurst were more extensive still. In the 20th century, the Carringtons sold the house, although retaining much of the surrounding estate. It is now divided into flats, with further housing in the surrounding estate buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axel Haig</span>

Axel Herman Haig ; was a Swedish-born artist, illustrator and architect. His paintings, illustrations and etchings, undertaken for himself and on behalf of many of the foremost architects of the Victorian period made him "the Piranesi of the Gothic Revival."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garden Corner</span>

Garden Corner is a Grade II* listed house at 13 Chelsea Embankment, Chelsea, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Bookcase</span> Bookcase designed by William Burges

The Great Bookcase is a large piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges. The bookcase is 10 feet (3.0 m) high and 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. It has been described as "the most important example of Victorian painted furniture ever made."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zodiac settle</span> Piece of furniture by William Burges

The Zodiac settle is a piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges and made between 1869 and 1871. A wooden settle designed with Zodiac themes, it was made for Burges' rooms at Buckingham Street, and later moved to the drawing room of The Tower House, the home that he designed for himself in Holland Park. Burges desired to fill his home with furniture "covered with paintings, both ornaments and subjects; it not only did its duty as furniture, but spoke and told a story." At one stage the poet John Betjeman gave the settle to the novelist Evelyn Waugh, and it is now in the collection of The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum in Bedford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narcissus washstand</span>

The Narcissus washstand is a piece of painted furniture made by the Victorian architect and designer William Burges in 1867. It was originally made for Burges's set of rooms at Buckingham Street and subsequently moved to his bedroom at The Tower House, the house he designed for himself in Holland Park in London. John Betjeman, later Poet Laureate and a leading champion of the art and architecture of the Victorian Gothic Revival, was left the remaining lease on the Tower House, including some of the furniture, by E. R. B. Graham in 1961. He gave the washstand, which he found in a second-hand shop in Lincoln, to the novelist Evelyn Waugh who featured it in his 1957 novel, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, mirroring a real-life incident when Waugh, in the grip of bromide poisoning, became convinced that an ornamental tap was missing from the washstand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Red Bed</span> Piece of painted furniture

The Red Bed is a piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges made between 1865 and 1867. Built of mahogany, painted blood red and decorated with imagery of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, it was made for Burges's rooms at Buckingham Street, and later moved to his bedroom at The Tower House, the home he designed for himself in Holland Park. Burges wanted to fill his home with furniture decorated with paintings; they served not only their obvious practical purposes, “but spoke and told a story”. After catching a chill while engaged on works for the Marquess of Bute at Cardiff, Burges returned to the Tower House and died in the Red Bed, aged 53, on 20 April 1881.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Work of William Burges at Cardiff Castle</span> Reconstruction of Cardiff Castle, Wales

From 1865 until his death in 1881 the Victorian architect William Burges undertook the reconstruction of Cardiff Castle for his patron, John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. The rebuilding saw the creation of some of the most significant Victorian interiors in Britain.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "The Golden Bed". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  2. "Survey of London: volume 37: Northern Kensington". British History Online. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  3. Crook 1981, p. 322.
  4. 1 2 UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  5. U K Stationery Office 2011 , p. 26
  6. Crook 1981, p. 302.
  7. Maev Kennedy (29 May 2002). "Guitarist's wardrobe made to measure". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 December 2013.