Temple Newsam State Bed

Although English in style, this bed was made by the eminent Parisian ébéniste Jean-Baptiste Tilliard the younger, who supplied furniture to the royal families of France and Sweden in 1777 and 1784. It is possible that the bed may have belonged to Isabella, Marchioness of Hertford and come to her as a gift from the Prince of Wales, with whom she had a long-standing affair from c 1806 to 1820. Alternatively it may have been acquired by her Nephew, Admiral Henry Meynell, in Paris.

The original hangings may have been replaced by the existing chintz hangings lined with crimson silk in the 1820s or the 1860s. The bed has been reunited with the crimson silk coverlet that can just be discerned in a photograph of the South Bedroom taken to commemorate the Royal Visit of the Duke and Duchess of York to Temple Newsam in 1894. Made in China in the late eighteenth century for export to France, this coverlet may be the only surviving element of the original 'sumptuous furniture'.

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