“This mahogany, pine, and brass “”lit de repos”” in the French Restauration taste descended in the Grima family. The daybed features turned and reeded supports, cast brass bolt covers, and—like much of the furniture made and/or used in New Orleans in the mid-19th century—brass ball feet and casters.

In 1844, Anne Marie Grima (née Filiosa) purchased the daybed and mattress from F. Seignouret &. Co.’s “fancy furniture store” on Royal Street for $46. Francois Seignouret, the shop’s proprieter, was a native of Bordeaux, France, from where he imported both wine and furniture. While Seignouret’s advertisements describe him as a manufacturer, no evidence has been found that he designed and/or crafted any furniture.

Earlier in 1844, widowed, Mme. Grima moved with her son Felix, daughter-in-law Adelaïde Montegut, and their children, into a large brick mansion at 96 St. Louis Street, now known as Hermann-Grima House. Family tradition states that Adelaïde Grima gave birth to four of her nine children on this bed. The elder Mme. Grima lived in the front bedroom of the house until her death in 1850. In an 1880 inventory of the property, Marie Grima, a daughter of Felix and Adelaïde, lists the daybed as well as a portrait of her grandmother among the items in the chambre de Papa. Both the daybed and the portrait by Jacques Amans returned to the same room when donated by Grima descendants in 1996 and 2010.
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