'The adornment of her bed; the arras; figures why, such and such''

Cymbeline (Act II, scene 2)

Wealthy residents were expected to keep up with local fashions in towns like Stratford. One notable trend during the 1500s was the placement of beds in the ground-floor parlour. The bed shown here is made of various parts dating from different periods. The headboard is constructed from two rows of linenfold panelling (styled to look like fabric). The top row dates from the 1800s, while the lower row is more modern. The main part of the bed (the frame) is also modern and is used to support bedding such as mattresses, pillows and blankets. The bed posts were made in the early 1500s and the tester (the section covering the bed) is late 1600s. This bed has been heavily refurbished over the centuries, but it follows the popular Tudor and Jacobean format of a tester bedstead. 

These beds could be simple in design or heavily decorated. Bright fabrics would hang from the tester (the wooden canopy above the bed) and colourful embroidery might adorn the bedding. Oak bedsteads and the fabrics that covered them were the most extravagant items in the early modern home. Consequently, decorated tester beds would be positioned in the most public of spaces and this was usually the reception space of the parlour. Only the most esteemed guests would actually sleep in these beds. The master and mistress of the household would then occupy the ‘second-best bed’. In early modern Stratford, beds like this example here could be found in parlours belonging to the town’s wealthiest and most influential residents. This was the sort of local trend Shakespeare would be expected to follow.