The columnar bed-posts are designed in Robert Adam's 'Etruscan' style of the 1770's and with their palm-leaf capitals they recall the columns of Diocletian's palace, published by Adam in his Ruins of the Emperor Diocletian's Palace at Spalatro, 1764.
Their shaft's trompe l'oeil flutes comprise pearl-centred bands alternating with broad and narrow bands of laurel; while leaf-filled flutes form the frieze of their pedestals, whose faces are inlaid with flowered-rosette spandrels and large oval paterae. The latter have husk-tipped scallops framing flower-centred medallions filled with laurel sprays.
The posts' pattern evolved from designs executed by Adam in 1775-6 for a domed bed for Robert Child's state apartment at Osterley Park, Middlesex. The latter, with inlaid and painted posts, is attributed to John Linnell (d.1796), cabinet-maker and upholsterer of Berkeley Square. It was noted by Horace Walpole in 1778 (see: M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, pp.60-61)
More specifically the stiff leaf inlay at the tops of the plinths closely resembles a technique used on furniture attributed to Mayhew and Ince such as the pembroke table illustrated in F.L. Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton & Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, pl.313