The Great Bed of Ware
'The Great Bed of Ware', carved oak bed, probably from Ware, Hertfordshire, UK, about 1590. Museum no. W.47-1931
On 5 March 2012 the Great Bed left the V&A on a year-long loan to the Ware Museum. An award from the Heritage Lottery Fund to the Ware Museum Trust has allowed the Bed to be once more displayed in the town where it was made.
A skilled team of six V&A specialists took almost a week to dismantle the bed in readiness for transportation and a further nine days to install and ‘dress’ it for display at Ware Museum.
Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, said:
'The Great Bed of Ware is one of the V&A’s most loved exhibits and has never before been off display since it was acquired in 1931. We are delighted that HLF has supported this project to enable the bed to be seen in the town of its origin in 2012. To remove the bed from the British Galleries, transport and reinstall it in another location is unprecedented, requiring much skill and dedication. We hope that the people of Ware will enjoy visiting this historic bed and that it will bring their local history alive.'
By the end of February 2013, over 24,000 people visited the bed at Ware Museum. A year-long programme has been organised. Events include Tudor re-enactments, music, crafts and drama. A Great Bed of Ware Heritage trail visits the places that housed the Great Bed between 1590 and 1869.
Read more about the Great Bed of Ware events at Ware Museum
One of the V&A’s greatest treasures, The Great Bed of Ware is probably the single best-known object in the Museum’s collections. The four-poster bed is famously over three metres wide – the only known example of a bed of this size.
The Bed was probably made in about 1590 as a tourist attraction for one of the inns at Ware, in modern-day Hertfordshire. Ware was a popular overnight destination for pilgrims on the route from London to Walsingham or travellers going to Cambridge University, and had many inns by the end of the 16th century.
Publicised as being able to sleep 12, travellers were reputed to choose the town of Ware to break their journey just to spend a night in the Bed. Visitors often carved their initials on the Bed or applied red wax seals, which are still visible on the bedposts and headboard today.
Detail of graffiti on the Great Bed of Ware. Museum no. W.47-1931
Interior view of the 'Great Bed of Ware', carved oak bed, probably from Ware, Hertfordshire, UK, about 1590, with reproduction hangings and bedclothes. Museum no. W.47-1931
The Bed became so famous that Sir Toby Belch describes a sheet of paper as '...big enough for the Bed of Ware!' in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1601). It continued to be mentioned in plays and bawdy tales, and is first recorded as ‘The Great Bed of Ware’ in 1609, when it was referred to by this name by Ben Jonson in Epiconene.
Although unique in size, in form and decoration the Bed epitomises the flamboyantly carved and painted beds of the late Elizabethan period. The woodwork is profusely carved with anglicised Renaissance patterns, acanthus leaves and strapwork. The human figures carved on the headboard and the underside of the tester (wooden canopy) show traces of paint and would originally have been brightly coloured. The hangings and bedclothes on the Bed are modern reproductions.
Further images of the Bed, and details about its history, can be found in the Great Bed of Ware Search the Collections record.
You can explore the Bed in more detail in this video. It has no sound, but is captioned.
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