A Bed of Roses: Royal or Revival? The Case of an Antique Bed
Icon Historic Interiors Group
at 9:30am
To: Monday 21.01.19
at 5:30pm
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre
Cromwell Road, Kensington
London, SW7 2RL
Cost:
Icon members £25
Non-members £35
Students £15
In 2010 a dismantled antique four-poster bed was left for collection in a car park in Chester. It was later sold at auction as a 'profusely carved Victorian four poster bed with armorial sheilds'. However, its now owner thought the oak looked much older and was impressed by the quality of the carving. He then embarked on an exploration of the object's past, employing an unusually broad array of archaeological, forensic and art historic analyses which produced startlingly variable, and sometimes contradictory, research findings - even from the same methodology.
When all of the evidence is collated what can we conclude - is it a fifteenth century royal bed, or a revival from the age of antiquarianism?
The One Day Symposium will provide an opportunity for all the specialists who have conducted research on the four-poster bed to present their findings.
The bed will be on display in the Lecture Theatre and accessible to delegates for close inspection.
PROGRAMME
9.00 Registration
Welcome – Dr Anna Buelow (Chair)
-
9.30 – 10.00 Discovery and first impressions
Anna Buelow in conversation with Ian Coulson (The Langley Collection) -
10.00 – 11.00 Iconography & Symbolism
10.00 – 10.30 '"Þat bed so manerly made": Beds of Power in Late-Medieval England' – Dr Hollie Morgan (University of Lincoln)
10.30 – 11.00 The Gothic Revival –Dr. Peter Lindfield (Manchester Metropolitan University) -
11.30 – 12.00 Iconography & Symbolism (continued)
The iconography of this bed within its cultural context, and a further discovery– Dr Jonathan Foyle (Historic Building & Places) -
12.00 – 12.50 Material Analysis - Dendrochronology
12.00 – 12.20 First Dendrochronology – Speaker TBC
12.20 – 12.50 Second Dendrochronology of Bed & Posts - Speaker TBC -
12.50 – 13.20 Witness to Time: The bed’s evolution, journey and reception
Dr Jonathan Foyle -
14.20 – 14.40 Material Analysis - DNA
Dr Lasse Schindler & Dr Hilke Schroeder (Thunen Institute Hamburg) -
14.40 – 15.10 Material analysis - Carbon Dating
Speaker TBC -
15.10 – 15.40 Material Analysis - Paint Analysis
Helen Hughes (Historic Interiors Research & Conservation) -
16.10- 16.30 Review of The Evidence
Discussion led by Dr Anna Buelow - 16.30 – 17.30 General Discussion
17.30 End of proceedings
Join the Historic Interiors Group for a fascinating and enlightening debate about this most curious of objects.
Presenters:
Dr Anna Buelow
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