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, England. Built by Hertfordshire carpenter Jonas Fosbrooke circa 1590, the bed measures ten by eleven feet and can sleep over 15 people at once. Many of those who have used the bed have carved their names into its posts.
By the 1800s, 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, 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 in London.
References to the Great Bed in Literature
- Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales
Since Chaucer died in 1400 it seems unlikely that the Great Bed of Ware (built in the 1500s) was referenced in his work.
- William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night
- George Gordon Byron’s Don Juan
- George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer.
- Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood
External links
- Images of the Great Bed of Ware are available on the V&A website
- BBC article
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