A Regency mahogany metamorphic chair bed

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A Regency mahogany metamorphic chair bed
By Morgan & Saunders, with folding arched canape with brass finials, on ring-turned baluster columns and eight sides with hinged slatted seat to form a bed on detachable turned legs with cushions, bearing a brass label inscribed Patent Morgan & Saunders, Manufacturers 16 & 17 Catherine Street, Strand, London, also bearing a label of Phillips of Hitchin (6)

Lot Essay

Morgan & Co of 16 & 17 Catherine Street traded from 1818-1820. The firm was established after the death of Joseph Saunders in 1818 up until then they had been known as Morgan & Saunders specialising in patent furniture.

An almost identical chair bed retaining its hinged flaps is illustrated in C. Gilbert Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, pp.346-348, figs 668-674.

The design for this bed is shown illustrated in a broadsheet advertisement by Thomas Butler 13 & 14 Catherine Street, London. It was referred to as the 'Butler patent chair bed'.

The bed is illustrated in an Exhibition of Travelling and Campaign Furniture 1790-1850, 3rd to 30th June 1984 at Phillips of Hitchen and also as fig.6 in an article Beds and Bedroom Furniture 1700-1830 by Jerome Phillips.

Cf. Exhibition of Furniture for Travel 1760-1800, 6th-30th June 1987 at Phillips of Hitchin for further mention of Morgan & Saunders.

B. Austin Morgan & Saunders and the Patent Furniture Makers of Catherine Street Connoiseur, November 1974.

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