Four-poster bed

"Four poster" redirects here. For other uses, see Four poster (disambiguation).

Four-poster bed

Ornate Elizabethan four-poster bed

A four-poster bed is a bed with four vertical columns, one in each corner, that support a tester, or upper (usually rectangular) panel, or four round bedknobs, one in each corner. This tester or panel will often have rails to allow curtains to be pulled around the bed. There are a number of antique four-poster beds extant dating to the 16th century and earlier; many of these early beds are highly ornate and are made from oak. An example of such an early 16th-century four-poster resides in Crathes Castle, which was made for the original castle owners in the Burnett of Leys family.

Historical

Four-poster beds are mentioned in numourous Irish sagas and were recorded in early Irish manuscripts. In the 12th century tale of Acallam na Senóradh, in the wooing of Credhe, Cael ua Nemhnainn cites in a poem "Four posts round every bed there are, of gold and silver laid together cunningly; in each post's head a crystal gem: they make heads not unpleasant [to behold]", when speaking of a fairy-mansion on the Paps of Anu, in Co. Kerry.

In popular culture

• The dormitories in the Harry Potter series have four-poster beds in.

See also

• Canopy bed
• Mosquito net