An exceptional Elizabethan oak tester bed

Jan & John Maggs

Antiques and Art

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A Fine and Imposing Carved and Inlaid Oak Full Tester Bed in the Elizabethan manner, incorporating early elements and profusely carved throughout, deeply paneled and gouge carved tester, headboard with inlaid and carved panels divided by masks, above arched panels having foliate inlay and carved surrounds separated by atlante and caryatid terms, gadrooned carved melon form cup and cover and gouge carved columnar posts supported by leaf carved molded pedestals, the bases with small tracery panels. English, late 16th/17th century and later, restorations and alterations. (From the 2010 appraisal)

63 ¾” wide, 90 ¼” long, 85” high

Price: $13,500

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We have sold a few early beds over the years, but we've never had the opportunity to list one with such age or with such a high level of ornament. This remarkable piece is currently in a home in central Connecticut, where we were able to inspect it in detail. Because of its rarity and quality, we are working with the family member who will ultimately manage the sale and relocation of the bed. Inquiries should come to us by email or phone.

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In his monumental study Oak Furniture: The British Tradition, Chinnery discusses the bed pictured above. The parallels between his example and this bed attest to both the age and the exceptional quality of this one.

Whatever the form of their original testers, whether of wood or fabrics, the remaining parts of these beds are set very much in the form followed by tester bedsteads for the next one hundred and fifty years. The headboard is a solidly-made panelled construction, though it still has the vestigial posts of the medieval type; the tester is supported by two foot-posts; and the bedding is laid on a bedstock of heavy bars framed together. The fully-developed Elizabethan bed is exemplified in Figure 3:459. The vestigial posts are no longer present, and, as with all important beds of this class, the foot of the bedstock stands separately from the posts. In terms of decoration, this bed is more restrained than some, but is none the less representative of the richer middle classes of c. 1575 – 1650. (Chinnery, 391-2)

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The monumental headboard, which supports one end of the bed rails and the tester,

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and a detail of one leg of the headboard, pieced almost invisibly and given an applied spandrel for stability.

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Details from the virtuoso carving on the headboard

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Some of the holly and ebony inlay that covers the headboard and tester

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The underside of the tester

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Detail of the outside of the tester and one of the posts at the foot

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The foot of the bedstead stands on its own legs.

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The bed has been in the same American family for nearly a century. We strongly suspect that the restoration was done in England prior to its arrival in America.

The most obvious restoration is to the four feet. The solid oak posts at the head have been pieced competently and then reinforced by two large spandrels under the bed rails. The restorer then applied a second post, approximately two inches thick, to the rear of the posts from floor to tester. While there are small losses of applied decoration, the bed appears to be in remarkably original condition.

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The fitted springs and mattress are in good condition and will be offered with the bed.

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