A FINE AND RARE QUEEN ANNE SILK-UPHOLSTERED TESTER BEDSTEAD

Percival Griffiths, Esq., Sandridgebury, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, sold, Christie's, Manson & Woods, London, May 10, 1939, lot 264, 38gns to Gooden and Fox

The Collection of the late Frederick, R. Poke, sold, Sotheby’s, London, May 11, 1979, lot 13

Mallett & Son, London

The Collection of Monsieur Hubert de Givenchy, sold Christie’s, Monaco, December 4, 1993, lot 57

Glenn Randall, Washington, D. C.

Acquired from the above, 1994

Dressed in yellow silk damask, the form of this tester bed reflects the gradual simplification of this form from the more elaborate examples of the late 17^th and early 18^th century. The earlier heavily shaped and molded cornice has been replaced by a simplified coved molding, the replaced shaped silk valances probably reflecting the original hangings which would have copied the window pelmets. The interior of the tester still retains the heavy compartmented molding of the baroque period, the wooden construction being covered in silk damask as is the arched and molded head-board. The manner in which the entire frame is covered in the same silk as the hangings was largely superseded in the latter part of the 18^th century by open carved cornices and bed posts in either mahogany or japanned and gilded wood.

The present bed has been in a number of distinguished collections during the last seventy-five years including those of Percival Griffiths, Frederick Poke, who purchased it through Gooden and Fox at the latter’s sale and, more recently, Monsieur Hubert Givenchy. Percival Griffiths was described by the renowned furniture historian R.W. Symonds, who not only advised him but also wrote the definitive volume on his collection ‘Furniture from Charles II to George II’.

See:

The Antique Collector, November-December 1943, ‘Percival Griffiths F.S.A. A Memoir on a Great Collector of English Furniture', R. W. Symonds, pp. 163-169