Lady Spencer's Bed

Inspired by the celebrated suite of bedroom furniture designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart for Margaret, Countess Spencer's apartment on the principal floor at Spencer House. The suite, executed in both sabicu and mahogany, comprised a wardrobe, a chest, a pair of bedside tables, a small table or washstand and a writing-table. The beds belonging to the suite were burnt in the fire at the Spencer family's Wimbledon residence in 1785. Arthur Young, visiting Spencer House in 1772, described the room as having 'beds and tables very finely carved and inlaid' and the suite must have been in Spencer House by 1766, when the family started to occupy the whole house and not merely the Ground Floor. Designed in extremely advanced Neo-Classical taste the attribution of this suite has long been the subject of conjecture as no bills survive for the commission. However, a prime candidate must be Messrs. Mayhew and Ince - in part because of the form of the chest, but also because of the reeded feet and elegant treatment of the legs. Spencer House combined both Rococo and Neo-classical tastes and the bed was most likely a more Rococo affair given the penchant to keep the 'softer' furnishings in more feminine forms. The bedroom may not have served as Lady Spencer's primary sleeping quarters and it is postulated that the room may have served as an sumptuous and intimate setting for the reception of close friends. The rest of the suite remains at Althorp, save for the 'washstand' which is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.