Wooden Double Bed Headboard with Shell and Scrolls, 1950s

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This antique double headboard, handcrafted from fir wood and featuring a 1950s scroll design, features a softly contoured panel, 170 … Read more This antique double headboard, handcrafted from fir wood and featuring a 1950s scroll design, features a softly contoured panel, 170 cm high and 180 cm wide. It's ideal for a double bed, with two side uprights and a perforated carving that highlights the polychrome decoration. This antique Italian headboard is richly hand-painted with plant motifs, scrolls that follow the perforated carving, and acanthus leaves that surmount and enclose the central shell. It was created by a decorator in the mid-1950s, who painted this headboard in very warm hues, including the blue of the central shell, ochre, Naples red, light green, and delicate pastel shades.

It comes from a private collection in Lombardy and is in good condition, with no missing parts and signs of wear consistent with use. On the back, at a height of 95 cm, there are holes with hooks for hanging the headboard on the wall.

In Greek and Roman myths, shells were a symbol of prosperity and rebirth, and they indicated the source of fertility. As an ornamental motif, the shell emerged during Mannerism, an ornamental evolution linked to the grotesque, later expanded during the Baroque period, especially in France, where this decorative motif was associated with Roccaille. See less