Book launch and signing of ‘The Henry VII and Elizabeth of York Marriage Bed: A Masterpiece of Tudor Craftsmanship’.

In celebration of the book release, Chetham’s Library will be hosting a wine reception, followed by talks by Ian Coulson on his rediscovery of the bed and its conservation, and Dr Peter Lindfield FSA (editor of and contributor to the book) on the bed’s iconography and historical significance.

Signed copies of the book available for an additional £28 (RRP £35)

The Henry VII and Elizabeth of York marriage bed, rediscovered in 2010, is an exceptional piece of late medieval English royal furniture: no other equivalent example of secular domestic furniture is known to have survived, and, indeed, precious little woodwork from this period remains outside of ecclesiastical settings. As a tour-de-force of medieval royal woodwork, the bed offers an unprecedented insight into elite domestic furniture from this period.

Since its rediscovery, the bed has been subjected to a wide array of investigation by furniture specialists, medieval historians, design historians and scientists. Emerging from a decade-long multidisciplinary research project, this book is the first sustained account of the bed: it shows how numerous disciplines covering the arts and conservation sciences can be brought together to assess and interpret such rare historic survivals.

The book explores the bed’s form and structure, context, iconography, wood, paint, physical history, provenance, including its curious reproduction by George Shaw in Victorian England, and fragments of the bed survive at Chetham’s Library.