Dante’s Bed

“The man who lies asleep will never waken fame, and his desire and all his life drift past him like a dream.”
Poet and father of modern Italy, Dante Alighieri

A dream like balance of elegance and strength, grandeur and simplicity, our hand-forged wrought iron Dante bed conceals a truly complex mastery of material and skills that took time and determination to track down. The first Dante bed took three years for us to create and left some of the best blacksmiths across the country scratching their beards. But, as Dante scribes in his Divine Comedy, “the more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.”

Material: Distinct from other commonly used modern iron alloys, true wrought iron is heated in a forge, then, whilst still hot and malleable, it is beaten and shaped by hand, a process that is repeated until the desired shape of the piece is achieved. This highly skilled process gives the metal a beautiful texture with visible layers, rather like filo pastry, a tensile strength contrary to the brittleness of cast iron, and a softness of appearance unlike steel. Iron wrought in this way won’t fracture and is ductile enough to be drawn out into the long and tapered octagonal posts of this masterful bed.

Craftsmanship: Hand-forged by one of a few blacksmiths still able to work in this way, each of the octagonal posts must be kept hot from top to bottom whilst the facets are hammered along the length of the posts which taper elegantly to a spike at the top, upon which slip the canopy rails. The shape and uniformity of each of the posts is achieved purely by the skilled hand and eye of the blacksmith. Each piece of iron wrought by hand in this traditional way is unique, and a skill that has been used for making furniture and works of art since the 8th century BC.

The beautifully fine frame is a breeze to transport and assemble, and a joy to dress – your choice of fabrics for the headboard and curtains can be completely transformative.

The effort required to make this bed limits availability to just six beds per year; such is the level of craftsmanship involved. We can optionally supply a boxspring mattress platform and wonderful quality mattress, and the team at 36 Bourne Street would be happy to advise on fabric and drapes.

Available to order: Double, King and Super King as well as bespoke sizes.