Why do listings mix Victorian with king size?

Because dealers describe the same bed in two centuries at once. Half of all titles use the word Victorian, and two in five give a modern mattress size. The size words are conversions applied now, not period measurements. A frame described as king size is being matched to a mattress a buyer can actually buy.

What sizes turn up most?

King size leads, at around two-fifths of listings, with 5ft the commonest figure and 6ft super king the widest band. Doubles, including 4ft6 and three-quarter widths, make up roughly a third. Singles account for about a fifth. Sixty-three titles are pairs of singles, and fourteen of those say the two frames can be joined into one wide bed. One outlier is given in metric at 160cm, and another at 5ft 6in described as extra wide.

How old are these beds usually?

The dealers' own dating runs from 1850 to 1930. Of 843 listings, 351 carry a clean year and the rest are given as a bracket such as Victorian, 19th Century or Edwardian. The 1900s is the busiest single decade at 149 listings, ahead of the 1890s and the 1880s. Anything before 1860 is scarce.

Is a half tester common?

No. Twenty-three titles in the archive describe a half tester, a canopy projecting over the head end only. Full four-posters are scarcer again, a handful across the whole archive, and they sit at the very top of the range.

Are all of these solid brass?

Far from it. Roughly two in five titles say iron alongside brass, which means the brass is the decorative element on an iron frame. All-brass frames are named as such in titles and gather in the upper half of the range. There is also a painted or japanned iron band, with brass knobs and detail.

Do wooden beds appear in this category?

A small band of them, yes. They are mahogany, walnut, maple or satinwood frames carrying brass inlay, brass mounts or brass detailing. Mahogany is the commonest of the woods, at twenty-five titles.

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Antique Brass Beds

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A nineteenth- or early twentieth-century metal bedstead - head end, foot end and side irons - made in brass, or in iron with brass as the decoration, and sold as a frame rather than a complete bed.