Great Bed of Ware

Common card · No. 469721

The Great Bed of Ware is an extremely large oak four-poster bed, carved with marquetry, that was originally housed in the White Hart Inn in Ware, Hertfordshire, England. Built by the Hertfordshire carpenter Jonas Fosbrooke about 1590, the bed measures 3.38m long and 3.26m wide (ten by eleven feet) and can "reputedly... accommodate at least four couples". 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 from European Renaissance art. 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 the Dutch artist Hans Vredeman de Vries (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...

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