This elaborate example of Elizabethan workmanship shares many characteristics with the celebrated 'Great Bed of Ware' thought to have been commissioned by Sir Henry Fanshaw of Ware Park circa 1595 and illustrated in R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964, p.32, pl.8. The arched marquetry panels to the headboard flanked by figural terms and corbels, the coffered tester and cup-and-cover footboards on both examples also feature on other beds of this period, notably one sold at Christie's New York, on behalf of the Estate of J. Paul Getty, Esq., , 31 May 1978, lot 92, and another sold anonymously in these Rooms, 30 October 1980, lot 115. A similar bed belonging to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was sold at Sotheby's New York, 16-17 April 1993, lot 413.