Sleeping beauties

The bed; a rectangle of refuge; a place of rest; a scene where life begins and ends; a statement of power, wealth and style but also a setting of simplicity, understatement and, sometimes, sadness. The bed is truly a microcosm of the human condition and on which we spend a great deal of our lives, so it is no wonder that it comes in plenty of different guises.

I am lucky enough to have lived in some very interesting properties, each dating from different historic eras or a mixture of several. As my tastes have either changed, or perhaps become more entrenched, over the decades, the acquisition of beds, or bedsteads – as they should technically be referred to – has become a central part of how