Being slightly geekish about French beds, and the history of beds, we love buying old sales catalogues and delving into the history of antique French beds.
They are a fascinating record of the production of beds from the early 20th century and indeed cover much of our stock both past and present.
They not only date the beds, but hark back to a regional manufacturing era which we rarely see today. Factories from Paris, Marseille, and Toulose produced stylish and beautifully made beds.
The catalogues below show a variety of styles available and choice of sizes for ordering. They date from the early 1900s through to 1930s.
One of the adverts is from a Parisian furniture shop, F J Genin, and shows the various styles and sizes of metal beds they were selling in April 1905.
We are often asked for beds larger than 140cm, but as you can see the catalogue only gives you the option to buy up to 140cm in width.
We tend to stock the size options shown in the advertisement – 90 cm (3 ft) ; 100 cm (3 ft 3”) ; 115 cm (3 ft 9”) ; 125 cm (4 ft) ; 140 cm. (4 ft 6”). Slightly wider wooden beds are available.
Here are a few of our past stock of beds, shown in the catalogues above.
