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.