Royal Shakespeare Company notes Agecroft artifact

We're pleased to see that the Royal Shakespeare Company, in its program notes for a recent performance of The Taming of the Shrew at Stratford-upon-Avon, made mention of Agecroft Hall and its elaborately-carved English oak painted bedstead, made c.1600. The program article, entitled "Come, Kate, We'll to Bed," provides appropriate background for a play that revolves around the battle between the sexes. Written by Dr. Tara Hamling and doctoral researcher Elizabeth Sharrett, both of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, the commentary makes clear that Elizabethans recognized the central role of the bed in life's most significant moments - birth, marriage consumation, death.

"Floral motifs carved or painted on bedsteads to symbolize fertility and fecundity were a permanent version of the flowers scattered on beds on the night of the wedding......One fine example is the painted bedstead now at Agecroft Hall......"

Bedsteads were generally regarded as among a married couple's most significant pieces of furniture, which makes the exceptional craftsmanship that often went into them seem appropriate. The Agecroft bedstead  features a wealth of elaborate carving and a polychromatic paint scheme; the paint is original. Good luck finishing a paint job these days that will last 400 years.