Headboard and footboard with trompe-l'oeil floral painted decoration from the James Sharp Bedroom Suite, 1841. An example of 19th century cottage furniture. Painting and ornamentation by Boston manufacturer, James Sharp (1790 - 1873).
bedframes
maple (wood)
beech (wood)
birch (wood)
trompe-l'oeil
Bed
Bed
Two pieces from this set are labeled "Miss K. B. Upham / Ogunquit, Maine," suggesting that they may have been used in a summer cottage there. Ornamented with summer flowers - trumpet vines and daisies, among others - the set would have been particularly suitable for summertime use. In The Architecture of Country Houses (1850), Andrew Jackson Downing discussed the appropriateness of cottage-style bedroom suites and pointed to Boston as the source of the finest examples. This set is notable both for the quality of the painting and for its extensive documentation for not only do we know where it was used, but the decorator and probable maker James Sharp signed and dated the base of the headboard.
J. Sharp 1841 (Painted on the footboard of the bed in the floral image.)
1907.6
Sharp, James, 1790-1873 (Maker)
49 1/2 x 59 x 2 (HxWxD) (inches)
Gift of the Wunsch Americana Foundation
2018.22.5
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