The Nawāb’s musical bed

In 1882 Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi IV, Nawāb of Bahawalpur, anonymously commissioned a bed in rosewood covered with about a third of a ton of chased and engraved sterling silver from La Maison Christofle in Paris. The bedposts were four life-size automatons, nude (though bewigged) female figures representing European types, powered by four crank-wound spring mechanisms in their pedestals.

Wires ran from these springs to a music box under the bed. Downward pressure on the center of the mattress activated the music box and caused the bedpost-women to begin shifting their eyes and fanning and whisking in time to the music (an unidentified excerpt from Gounod’s Faust). The performance lasted 30 minutes. A watercolor and several photos taken in 1882 for the Christofle firm are the only evidence of the bed, whose present whereabouts are unknown.

This according to “Asleep with painted ladies” by Carl A. Skoggard (Nest X [2000] pp. 100–105). Below, “Oh Dieu! Que de bijoux” (Jewel song), an aptly themed candidate for the Faust excerpt in question.

Related article: The Sultan’s pipe organ

9 Comments

Filed under Curiosities, Romantic era, Visual art

9 Responses to The Nawāb’s musical bed

  1. Pingback: Egy dúsgazdag indiai nagyúr aludt a világ legfurcsább ágyában | hamishirek.hu

  2. John

    I hope they did not melt it down, perhaps it is hidden somewhere.

  3. Ben

    Hello! Could you please send me a hi-resolution version of this terrific bed? Or do you know where I can obtain it? Thanks!

  4. Pingback: The Sultan’s pipe organ | Bibliolore

  5. Pingback: Liberace’s taste | Bibliolore

  6. Carl Skoggard

    Dear Zdravko,
    I sense your fine hand in this business. I was indulging in the online equivalent of sniffing one’s own armpit, and came upon this little trace of the past (RiLM and Nest combined). Hope you are well.

    Carl

  7. Thanks! We like to think that we occasionally enliven the blogosphere.

  8. In terms of “beat that!”, you beat me hands down. My colleagues now think my blogposts rather tame by comparison …!