Great Bed of Ware
Encyclopedia
Four poster bed
A four-poster bed is a bed with four vertical columns, one in each corner, that support a tester, or upper panel. There are a number of antique four-poster beds extant dating to the 16th century and earlier; many of these early beds are highly ornate and are made from oak...
, carved with marquetry
Marquetry
Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces or to freestanding pictorial panels...
, that was originally housed in the White Hart Inn in Ware, England. Built by Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
carpenter Jonas Fosbrooke circa 1590, the bed measures ten by eleven feet and can "sleep" over fifteen people at once. Many of those who have used the bed have carved their names into its posts.
Like many objects from that time, the bed is carved with patterns derived from European Renaissance ornament. Originally it would have been brightly painted, and traces of these colours can still be seen on the figures on the bed-head. The design of the marquetry panels is derived from the work of Dutch artist Hans Vredeman de Vries
Hans Vredeman de Vries
Hans Vredeman de Vries was a Dutch Renaissance architect, painter, and engineer. Vredeman de Vries is known for his publication in 1583 on garden design and his books with many examples on ornaments and perspective ....
(1527–1604) and the panels were probably made by English craftsmen working in London in the late Elizabethan period. The bed-hangings are modern re-creations of fabrics of the period.
By the 19th century, the bed had been moved from the White Hart Inn to the Saracen's Head, another Ware inn. In 1870, William Henry Teale, the owner of the Rye House
Rye House
Rye House may refer to:*Rye House , a Registered Historic Place in Litchfield, Connecticut*Rye House Cobras, a speedway team*Rye House Kart Circuit, karting circuit in Rye House, Hertfordshire, England...
, acquired the bed and put it to use in a pleasure garden. When interest in the garden waned in the 1920s, the bed was sold. In 1931, it was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London.
In March, 2012, the bed is scheduled to be exhibited for a year in Ware Museum, on loan from the V & A.