Tester bed of carved oak, c. 1600, with elaborately carved headboard and footboard, the carving including the with alterations and enrichments made in the 19th century. Carved with date of 1593 and with the Courtenay family motto (Ubi lapsus quod feci' - 'Where have I fallen, what have I done'). Restored and further embellished in the first half of the 19th century.

Tester bed of carved oak, with carved headboard and tester and with carved show posts. The carving includes the arms (Quaterly, 1st and 4th, or, three torteaux, for Courtenay; 2nd and 3rd, or, a lion rampant, az., for Redvers, the old Earls of Devon) and mottto ('UBI LAPSUS QUID FECI') said to be of the Courtenay family of Devon (although the modern motto is 'FIT VIA VI'). The bed has been fitted in the 19th century with two footboards (one resting on the bed rail, the other standing in front of the bed-stock. The top of the lower board is carved with the date '1593'. The design of the bed incorporates grotesque figures, masks and fanciful beasts, with flowers and formal motifs, with small areas of inlay. The hangings of the bed are a recent addition for display purposes, by the current borrowers.
The bed is constructed with a full-height panelled and carved headboard and with free-standing show-posts at the foot end, the plinths of which conceal cupboards, opening each with a single door. Together the headboard and show-posts support the coffered and carved wooden tester and the wooden frieze, cornice and cresting carvings. The panels of the headboard do not come lower than approximately 69 cm from the floor and below this the posts are joined by a separate bed-rail (H: 12 cm, W: 7.3 cm, visible length: 117 cm).

The side rails of the bed-stock are replacements, but probably of the late 18th or early 19th century. They are cut to take splats which would run across the bed but also show a recess cut on the inner edge of the top surface, to which a sacking bottom was at one time attached (fragments of this survive). The foot-rail and the footposts of the bedstock were missing from the time the bed went to its current loan location and have been replaced in stained pine.

The footboard above the bedstock is set within iron brackets screwed to the top of the side rails and is clearly a 19th-century addition, with some areas in walnut. The footboard covering the space below the bedstock is carved in a different fashion. It is placed outside the foot-rail of the bed, set between the functional foot-posts and lying just behind the show posts.

The bed is believed to have come to Turton Tower, Lancashire in 1840, purchased by James Kay, the new owner of the property. It remained there until it was sold in September 1890 by Messrs Lomax & Sons & Mills, Norfolk Street, Manchester, who conducted an auction sale on the premisses . It was purchased by the V&A for £357 (340 guineas). A letter from J. Hungerford Pollen to the Secretary of the Science and Art Department, from Turton at the time of the sale (Nominal File MA/1/L1851), recorded 'It is the most untouched of all the old pieces. I had passed my hand over the original standards at the back to ascertain whether they had been cut or pieced, also I closely looked into the showy posts at the bed foot. But all the work there, I feel satisfied is old, & of its own time. One, I dare say both of the dado bases of the footposts have a side made to open so as to form a bedside closet, nor could I find that the door so made is modern. That is not, however, a detail of any real importance.'

In 1909, a letter from the then Earl of Devon, suggested that the most likely time for the bed to have left Powderham would have been about 1823, when the 9th Earl went to live in France and the house was left almost dismantled. He pointed out that the 11th Earl, who succeeded in 1859, was a collector of old oak, so unlikely to have sold the bed.

In June 1938 the bed was presented for Board of Survey assessment and possible de-accessioning and disposal as a 'Notorious fake'. See Registered File 38/2502, on Policy File VA200-1, Board of Survey, Furniture and Woodwork 1935-39. The entry on the list was struck out and presumably the decision was taken to retain the bed.

The bed was returned to Turton Tower on loan in 1978 (Registered file 76/2003)

Traditionally, the bed was the most valuable item in any household and care and expense was lavished on it. This bed, which bears the arms of the Courtenay family of Devon, may have been made in the west country. Several of the carved ornamental motifs are found on other furniture, particularly chests that have been in churches in Somerset for several centuries. The date on the lower footboard is, however, misleading. Although the bed was probably made at some time between 1590 and 1630, the date of 1593 was carved when this panel was added to the bed, probably just before it went to Turton Tower, possibly in 1840.

James Kay, the owner of Turton from 1835, was a keen antiquarian, who restored the medieval tower and added new wings. He furnished his house with a great selection of 'ancient' oak furniture (mainly dating from the 16th and 17th centuries) and with tapestries and paintings. This bed would have appealed greatly to him with its long history, and its association with such a distinguished aristocratic family.

On long term loan to Turton Tower, Bolton.

404-1890