the term 'four-poster' is used today to cover a wide variety of beds made between about the sixteenth century and the nineteenth. A four-poster may be a huge 30 foot high state bed awaiting the visit of the sovereign to a nobleman's house, or a humble oak marriage bed still standing in a centuries-old farmhouse. Four-poster and other tester (canopied) beds have acquired romantic associations and they are now linked with honeymoon couples and a happy married life. Over the years designs changed dramatically, from the almost black, heavily carved yeoman's bed to the slender intricacies of the eighteenth-century Chippendale 'Chinese' bed. There are also a number of portable beds, used by travellers or millitary men. Nowadays many hotels have four-posters available for use by visitors. This book will help in identifying the basic characteristics of each style and in the dating and naming of the bed.