Physical description
Bed in the Chinese style, with slender carved posts and a fretted backboard holding up an elaborate tester in the shape of a pagoda surmounted by gilded dragons. One wing of the dragon on the front right as you look at the bed has been replaced by the museum.
Place of Origin
Berkeley Square (probably, made)
Date
ca. 1754 (made)
Artist/maker
Linnell, John, born 1729 - died 1796 (designer and maker)
Linnell, William (designer and maker)
Materials and Techniques
Beechwood, japanned in red, yellow and blue and gilded
Dimensions
Height: 393 cm, Width: 241.5 cm maximum, Depth: 257 cm maximum
Object history note
Commissioned by the 4th Duke and Duchess of Beaufort for the Chinese bedroom at Badminton House, South Gloucestershire. Probably designed and supplied by the workshops of William and John Linnell, Berkeley Square, London. This was one of the earliest 'bedroom suites', with other items of furniture made to match. The V&A also holds a cabinet from the set (W.55-1952) and two armchairs (W.33 and W.34-1990). The commission came at a time of fashionable interest in Chinese styles. The year before the bed was commissioned, in 1754, an engraving was published showing 'A View of the Mandarine Yacht and Belvedere Belonging to His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland at Windsor'. The 'Mandarine Yacht' had a pleasure pavilion on it with a striped roof, turning up at the corners, the sides with pierced and trellised panels, and the deck of the yacht had rails trellised in Chinese style. The hull of the yacht, above the water, was painted with a dragon. It sailed on the Duke's lake at Belvedere, Windsor.
Offered for sale at Christie's, 30 June 1921, lot 76, but bought in. It was subsequently bought by Moss Harris & Sons and offered to the Museum for £400 (Nominal File: MA/1/H857).
This bed came into the collection at a time when there was considerable interest in Chinoiserie decoration. In 1920 the well-known designer and furniture historian Percy Macquoid had designed a suite of bedroom furniture in lacquer for the manufacturer, Sir Arthur Crossfield's house, Witanhurst, 41 Highgate West Hill. The decorating firm of White Allom & Co. were commissioned to decorate and furnish the house and Macquoid made designs for them. The following year the V&A acquired another bed in Chinoiserie taste (W.451-1922), but the origins of that bed are so far unknown.
Museum negative 74591 shows this on display in Gallery 40 in 1936 as part of a display of Georgian furniture.
A pair of giltwood dragons, similar to those used as finials on the bed and probably made for the Chinese Pavilion at Woburn, Bedfordshire, were discussed by Sharon Goodman in 'A Tale of Two Dragons', Furniture History, vol. LV, pp. 101-118. Those dragons are there attributed to William Linell. One of the V&A dragons is illustrated as fig. 4. Fig. 3 in this article illustrates a design for a girandole by John Linnell with a finial in the form of a dragon (V&A, E.212-1929).
Descriptive line
Bed carved, japanned and gilded in the Chinese style by Linnell, English, about 1754
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Eden, Mary and Carrington, Richard. The Philosophy of the Bed
London: Hutchinson, 1961
Plate 9
Macquoid, Percy, A History of English Furniture, vol. IV, The Age of Satinwood, pp. 13-17 fig. 9. London and New York: Lawrence & Bullen, and G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1908.
Labels and date
British Galleries:
The elaborate carved and 'japanned' fretwork and the tall pagoda-shaped canopy guarded by gilt dragons make this one of the most imposing examples of English Chinoiserie. The original chintz hangings do not survive and there is no record of their appearance. These hangings are based on 18th-century designs but the fabric is undecorated. On one side, the bed is left without curtains to show the decoration of the frame. [27/03/2003]
Materials
Beech (wood)
Techniques
Carved; Japanning; Water gilding; Oil gilding
Subjects depicted
Dragons
Categories
Furniture; Household objects; British Galleries
Collection
Furniture and Woodwork Collection