The marriage bed of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York: A masterpiece of Tudor craftsmanship

Lindfield, Peter N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8393-9344, ed. 2023. The marriage bed of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York: A masterpiece of Tudor craftsmanship. Oxbow Books.

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Abstract

The Henry VII and Elizabeth of York marriage bed, rediscovered in 2010, is an exceptional piece of late-medieval English royal furniture: no other equivalent example of secular domestic furniture is known to have survived, and, indeed, precious little woodwork from this period remains outside of ecclesiastical settings. As a tour-de-force of medieval royal woodwork, the bed offers an unprecedented insight into elite domestic furniture from this period. Since its rediscovery, the Henry VII and Elizabeth of York bed has been subjected to a wide array of investigation by furniture specialists, medieval historians, design historians, and scientists. Emerging from a decade-long multidisciplinary research project, this book is the first sustained account of the bed: it shows how numerous disciplines covering the arts and conservation sciences can be brought together to assess and interpret such rare historic survivals. Broken down into thematic chapters, the book explores the bed’s form and structure, context, iconography, wood, paint, physical history, provenance—including its curious reproduction by George Shaw in Victorian England—and relationship with known surviving Tudor furniture, as well as Georgian and Victorian Gothic Revival beds. Although thought to be a nineteenth-century ‘fake’, this book presents historical, archival, and scientific evidence to show, beyond doubt, the bed’s late-medieval age. Whilst grounded upon research presented at a 2019 conference funded by ICON—The Institute of Conservation—and held at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the book incorporates additional historical and scientific discoveries made since the conference. Written by a range of scientists, historians, and specialist researchers, this volume is a multi-disciplinary work of immeasurable value to readers from numerous disciplines.

Item Type:	Book
Book Type:	Edited Book
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Architecture
Publisher:	Oxbow Books
ISBN:	9781789257922
Last Modified:	26 May 2023 10:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/159804

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