Transcript
The next two rooms were the bedrooms of the King’s brothers, the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence. They were restored in 1994, when they were returned to their original layout and the original décor was reinstated. They feature vivid yellow wallpaper, with ornate Oriental designs of dragons, suns and other motifs. Chrome yellow was not commercially available before 1818, so its use here was innovative and modern, as well as being very expensive.
The first room was the bedroom of the Duke of York. He was Commander in Chief of the British army and is thought to have inspired the famous nursery rhyme The Grand Old Duke of York.
Two massive hat boxes that stand in front of the bed were for plumed hats, while opposite is a Side Cabinet that was made for this room but disappeared, before turning up at auction in 1993.
When you are ready, continue into the south Yellow Bow Room.
Side Cabinet
David Beevers
‘It’s original to this room and it’s got the set of brand marks on the back, for GR IV Pavilion and it came up for sale in New York. We were alerted to it by the auction house. It had been converted for use as a kind of cocktail cabinet and television cabinet. The back had wires through it and it had been chopped around a bit. But it was wonderful that this cabinet was made for this room, it’s recorded in the Royal Pavilion inventory of 1826 as being in this room. It’s made of satinwood with these Egyptian mask heads at the front here. It doesn’t look like the sort of furniture that one associates with the Pavilion but in fact the Pavilion had all kinds of furniture, not just Chinese style furniture, furniture of all different types; some very plain, some very ordinary, some very standard. This is a piece of Egyptian revival furniture with the Egyptian sphinx heads on the front. It dates from about 1805.’