A GEORGE III SYCAMORE, HOLLY, AMARANTH, MARQUETRY AND PAINTED FOUR-POSTER BED

This beautiful bed, the footposts inlaid with foliage and anthemia and the pierced cornice carved with flowering acroteria, is extremely rare and may be associated with the Berkeley Square workshop of John Linnell (1729-96). As one of the most prominent firms of cabinet-makers of the second half of the 18th century, the Linnells - John, together with his father William Linnell (d. 1763) - supplied furniture and decoration for important country houses including Badminton House, Osterley Park, Syon Park, Alnwick Castle, Shardeloes, Bowood House, Lansdowne House and Inveraray Castle. The present bed can be most closely related to a bed made by John Linnell for Castle Howard, Yorkshire, Yorkshire and a bed that he made for Robert Child at Osterley Park, Middlesex to a 1779 design by the architect Robert Adam (d. 1792; H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, vol. II, pp. 6-7, figs. 10 and 11). Each of these beds was made with window cornices en suite which all feature flowered acroteria, as in the cornice of the present bed – although gilded rather than painted. Most significantly, both the Osterley and Castle Howard beds are decorated with marquetry to their cornices and bedrails, whilst their footposts are painted. The use of marquetry decoration for the footposts, so beautifully executed and retaining some of the original staining on the present bed, is extremely rare and thus far no other beds with inlaid posts are known.