AN OAK BEDSTEAD, DUTCH, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

The Darnick Tower Bed

Details

AN OAK BEDSTEAD, DUTCH, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
with a moulded cornice above a gadrooned and stop fluted frieze interspersed with lion masks and foliate detail and with an arcaded lower edge, the roof with four panels, the back with two rows of five panels flanked by fluted uprights, with a galleried arcade to one side above moulded panels and with three panels to the other side below a conforming frieze rail, the roof raised on Ionic stile turned columns with bulbous foliate sections and continuing with a square section column fluted to the front and with a foliate capital, joined by a conforming front rail with raised eagle heads to either side and with two drawers below running the width of the bed -- 86in. (219cm.) wide, 92in. (236cm.) high, 58in. (147cm.) deep
See Illustration

Provenance

Darnick Tower, Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland
This Border Keep was built in 1425 and is one of the few remaining towers that were once common sights along the Scottish border. It has been in continuous ownership of the Heiton family right up to the present day. Family tradition holds the belief that the bed came from Linlithgow Palace.
In 1889, The 3rd Marquis of Bute instructed his cabinet makers to make a copy of this bed, which can still be seen in the Queen's Falkland Palace.

Exhibited

This bed featured at The Scottish Ideal Home Exhibition, Glasgow in the autumn of 1931.

Lot Essay

This distinctive form of tester bed, heavily carved and moulded with Mannerist decoration, is a typical Netherlands product of the early 17th century. The structure is designed to be set into the corner of a room, and some examples are integrated with the larger scheme of wall-panelling. Similar beds may be seen in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Rembrandt's House, Amsterdam; the Friesch Museum; and the Steen-Vleeshuis/Brouwershuis Museum, Antwerp.

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