Antique Kingsize Beds
Period bedsteads, mostly Victorian brass and iron or French wooden frames, that are wide enough to take a modern 5ft kingsize mattress and base.
Antique Kingsize Beds
Kingsize is a modern retail measurement, not a period one. What this heading gathers is 19th- and early 20th-century bedsteads that are, or have been made to be, 5ft wide, with a large minority at 6ft super king and a few given as two metres. The width is being sold as much as the period: the word "size" appears in almost every title on Sellingantiques, more often than any material or style term.
The form you'll meet most is a 5ft Victorian metal bedstead. Brass appears in around a quarter of titles and iron in a similar share, very often together as "brass and iron", meaning an iron frame with brass knobs, rails and castings. All-brass frames are a separate and smaller run. Alongside them sit plainer beds, many described as Irish or Portuguese, and "no end" frames with a headboard and no foot.
French beds are the largest national group, named in about a third of titles. They come painted, caned or bergère, or in walnut and mahogany, and carry a vocabulary of their own: corbeille and demi corbeille, lit bateau and sleigh, Directoire, Empire, Louis XVI. Upholstered and newly upholstered French frames make up a smaller run again, with English wooden headboards behind them.
Dating runs 1800 to 1950, and the mass sits either side of 1900, with the 1900s the biggest single decade and the 1920s next. A large block is dated only by reign or century, so "Victorian" on a title can mean anything from the 1840s to 1901. Four-posters, testers and half-testers are a small part of the whole. Around a hundred pieces come to market a year from sixty-one dealers.
What Sets Them Apart
In the metal beds, construction does most of the work. Brass-and-iron 5ft frames sit through the middle of the range, while all-brass examples cluster in the upper reaches, and all-brass four-posters occupy the very top. At the other end, titles carrying the word "simple" and plain iron beds without a foot end concentrate low and mid-range.
Width pushes the same way. Super king and 6ft frames sit consistently above comparable 5ft ones, and the two-metre and "extra wide" beds appear only in the upper half. Decoration follows: carved, gilded, four-poster, tester and half-tester frames all sit high, with four-posters at the extreme top and the highest of those 18th-century George III.
Two other things lift a bed. A named English or Continental workshop, whether stamped or given as an attribution, clusters in the upper part of the range. So does completeness as a set: matching bedsides, an armoire, chairs or a full bedroom suite, named in a couple of dozen titles, sit noticeably above the equivalent frame on its own.
Antique Kingsize Beds Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for kingsize beds, 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.
One-offs from the archive include a bed painted with porcelain scenes, an Italian toleware bedstead, and a 1930s Art Deco bed with a hidden dressing table.
The Antique Kingsize Beds Glossary
- Kingsize / 5ft
- Five feet wide, the standard measurement in this category and named as "5ft" in over a hundred titles.
- Super king / 6ft
- A wider frame, usually 6ft or two metres across. "Super" turns up in nearly two hundred titles, and "extra wide" and "bigger than king size" appear as titles in their own right.
- No end
- A bedstead with a headboard and no foot end. Common enough in the metal group to be one of the two standard qualifiers alongside super king.
- Bedstead
- The frame itself: head, foot and side rails. The older trade word, and much commoner in current stock than in the archive.
- Bergère / caned
- A wooden frame with woven cane panels, a recurring note among the French beds.
- Corbeille
- A French bed with a curved, basket-shaped head and foot. Demi corbeille and double corbeille both appear.
- Dip rail
- A top rail that dips towards the centre, named on several Edwardian metal beds.
Antique Kingsize Beds: Frequently Asked Questions
Are these beds actually antique or modern copies?
The dealers' own dating runs from 1800 to 1950, with the bulk of listings carrying a clean year. The heaviest decade is the 1900s, followed by the 1920s and 1910s.
A further block is dated only as Victorian, Edwardian or "19th Century", which are era labels rather than years. A handful of sampled pieces carry 18th-century or Regency dates.
Will an antique bed take a modern mattress?
That is the whole basis of the heading. Everything gathered under it is 5ft wide as standard, sized, adapted or originally built to take a modern kingsize mattress and base.
A large minority run wider at 6ft super king, and a few are given as two metres across.
What does 'brass and iron' mean on a bedstead?
An iron frame with brass knobs, rails or castings applied to it. It's the commonest metal construction in this category, with brass in around a quarter of titles and iron in a similar share, very often in the same title.
All-brass frames, made entirely of brass rather than brass-trimmed iron, are a separate group and cluster at the top of the range.
Why do so many listings mention French beds?
French beds are the largest national group by a wide margin, named in about a third of titles on Sellingantiques. They come painted, caned or bergère, or in walnut and mahogany.
They bring their own vocabulary with them: corbeille, demi corbeille, lit bateau, bergère, Directoire and Empire. Louis and Louis XVI appear regularly too.
How common are four-poster beds in this size?
Uncommon. Around thirty-five titles mention a poster and twenty-eight a tester, a small slice of the category, with half-testers fewer again.
They occupy the entire top end of the range all the same, the highest being 18th-century George III examples, with all-brass four-posters also up there.
Do any unusual beds turn up in this category?
A few surface once each. Among them a bed with porcelain scenes, one with mother-of-pearl inlay, an Italian toleware bedstead, nickel-plated Italian frames, a faux bamboo spindle bed and a japanned bedstead.
A 1930s Art Deco bed with a hidden dressing table appears, and so do pairs of single beds offered as a joinable super king, a route to the width that has nothing to do with the original frame size.