Antique 5ft Beds between £0 and £0
A bedstead about five feet across, the width sold today as UK king size, which is why so many of these listings read "5ft king size" almost as one phrase.
What Are 5ft Beds?
Five feet is the frame width, roughly 152cm, and the same measurement as a modern UK king size mattress. That is the reason period frames of this width are sought out, and the reason 106 of the 144 titles on Sellingantiques carry "king size" in them.
The dominant form is a 19th or early 20th century brass-and-iron bedstead. Brass appears in 55 titles, iron in 53, Victorian in 50, and the set phrase "classic Victorian" in 28. Finishes given include black, grey, white, cream, dark green and aged brass.
Behind that sits a quarter of the category in French wooden beds: walnut, mahogany, cherry and kingwood parquetry, in Louis XV and XVI style, Empire style, lit bateau, corbeille and bergère caned forms. English and colonial hardwood beds follow, including four-posters, testers and half-testers, with Anglo-Indian, Irish, Spanish and Portuguese origins all recorded in titles.
Dating runs from 1800 to 1930, with 89 listings carrying a clean year. Where a year does appear it very often reads simply 1900, which accounts for 50 of them. Not every entry is a complete frame either: nine titles describe a bed with no foot end, and headboard-only pieces turn up as well.
Top And Bottom
Attribution does the most work at the top. The metal beds carrying the Winfield name sit in the upper reaches of the range, and every other metal bedstead in the run is unattributed. Among the metalwork, all-brass beds run above the brass-and-iron pairings, which cluster tightly in the middle.
Construction and decoration lift the wooden beds. Four-posters, testers and half-testers cluster near the top, and so do pieces with carving, parcel-gilt, ormolu, gilt bronze mounts, marquetry or kingwood parquetry. Plain walnut and mahogany examples sit well below them, and frames with no foot end sit toward the bottom.
Width matters more than the category heading suggests. Frames measured at 5ft 6in, 5ft 7in and 5ft 10in all sit at or near the top of the range, and "wide" turns up in eight titles.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for 5ft beds between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Five feet isn't always five feet. The archive includes frames measured at 5ft 6in, 5ft 7in and 5ft 10in.
The Antique 5ft Beds between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Bedstead
- The frame itself, meaning head end, foot end and side rails, without mattress or base.
- No end / no foot end
- A bed with a head end only and the foot left open. It appears in nine titles.
- Half tester
- A canopy projecting over the head end alone, rather than the full four-post canopy. A tester is the full canopy carried on four posts.
- Aged brass
- Brass left with its natural darkened patina rather than polished bright. Ten titles use the phrase.
- Lit bateau
- French boat-shaped bed with scrolled head and foot ends, the sleigh bed form. A corbeille end is basket-shaped, curved and swelling outward.
- Bergère caning
- Woven cane panels set into the bed ends, seen on several of the French beds in this category.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a 5ft bed the same as a king size?
Yes, in these titles the two terms are used interchangeably. Five feet is about 152cm, the modern UK king size mattress width.
That overlap is why the phrase "5ft king size" reads almost as one word across the category, appearing in 106 of the 144 listings.
What sort of 5ft bed turns up most often?
A Victorian brass-and-iron bedstead. Brass appears in 55 titles and iron in 53, and the two metals are repeatedly paired in the same frame.
Dealers use "classic Victorian" for this form in 28 titles, which is settled trade shorthand for the type. Finishes recorded include black, grey, white, cream, dark green and aged brass.
How many come up for sale each year?
Roughly six a year on Sellingantiques, from twenty-one dealers who have listed five-foot beds in total.
So it is a steady trickle rather than a crowded category, and the 144 listings in the archive have built up over time.
Are all of these beds actually five feet wide?
No. The archive includes frames measured at 5ft 6in, 5ft 7in and 5ft 10in, and "wide" appears in eight titles.
Those outsized examples sit at the very top of the range.
Which French forms appear in this category?
French beds account for about a quarter of the run, in walnut, mahogany, cherry and kingwood parquetry. Louis XV and XVI style and Empire style are both named in titles.
The forms include lit bateau, corbeille ends, bergère caning and parcel-gilt work, with ormolu and gilt bronze mounts on some.
Do all listings include a complete frame?
Not all. Nine titles describe a bed with a head end and no foot end at all.
Headboard-only pieces appear too, including an Art Deco headboard with attached bedside cabinets and a pair of parcel-gilt cane headboards.