Elizabethan canopy bed; Spain, third quarter of the nineteenth century.

Elizabethan canopy bed; Spain, third quarter of the nineteenth century.
Gilded bronze with rollers.
Measurements: 224 x 200 x 155 cm.
This extraordinary canopy bed is an outstanding example of Spanish Elizabethan furniture, made in the third quarter of the 19th century, at a time of special artistic and social effervescence. Executed in gilded bronze, with an original system of rollers for the handling of curtains.
The structure, of clear architectural conception, is organized from four slender uprights topped by decorative pinnacles that support the upper canopy, creating a scenic effect. The headboard, richly worked, concentrates the greatest artistic value of the work: a symmetrical composition of scrolls, stars, floral garlands and a central motif in the form of a classic vase.
The aesthetic quality of this bed lies in the metalwork, in the harmony of its proportions and in the careful integration of the decorative elements with the structure. It is a piece conceived not only for rest, but to occupy a prominent place in the bedroom, understood in the nineteenth century as a space of private representation, where furniture communicated status, culture and modernity.
The emergence of pieces like this one responds to the context of Elizabethan Spain, when the consolidation of the bourgeoisie and the influence of European trends drove the demand for sumptuous, durable and technically advanced furniture. The use of gilded metal, as opposed to traditional wood, symbolized progress, while allowing an ornamental richness difficult to achieve with other materials.