Gustav III’s collapsible bed by Georg Haupt,
When the bed was commissioned in 1777, the price was 240 riksdaler. Compared with the wage index for male industrial workers at that time, this equates to more than two million kronor in today's money (€172,727.31).
The disguised bed stood in the king's bedchamber, but it was not the king who slept in it. It was the king's page who slept in such an expensive bed.
King Gustav III was constantly surrounded by other people, and his page – usually an officer in his twenties – slept in the same room. The page's role was somewhere between that of a bodyguard and a servant. He accompanied the king when he went out walking, and in the evenings he read aloud by the light of a single candle until the king fell asleep.
He also organised the king's bath, and King Gustav III bathed or showered every other day. Another duty was to wake the sleepy king in the mornings.
King Gustav III certainly did not want to see an ugly spare bed in his bedroom. The solution was this disguised bed. The bed is 173.5 cm long when pulled out to its full extent, which was plenty long enough for an adult man of average height at that time. The bedding consisted of down mattresses, allowing for a good night's sleep.
Located at Drottningholm Palace
