A French Renaissance carved walnut bed second half 16th century

Purchased Sotheby's, London, Château de Cornillon, Loire, France:  Important Gothic and Renaissance Furniture, Works of Art & Textiles, 31st October 2006, lot 41.

Comparative Literature:
Henry Havard, Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la decoration, Paris, (1885-1887), t. III, pp. 408-411.
Jacques Thirion, Le mobilier du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance en France, Dijon, 1998, p. 85.

In the Renaissance period the bed had not changed its form since the 15th century and consisted of a wooden frame with four corner posts supporting a canopy from which hung curtains which were embroidered and costly. The bed was a symbol of social status in the Middle Ages. Hardly any beds from the first Renaissance survive confirming the rarity of this bed, however, one can ascertain their form and function from two engravings, one in the library of l'Institut d'art and one in the Archeological Foundation Jacques Doucet. The one of most interest is the engraving by A. Du Cerceau for a bed reproduced here in fig. 1. The bed had undergone a significant evolution at this time, the posts are reduced to small candelabra, the canopy has replaced the  tester and conformed to the Italian model instead of a tester of cloth suspended from the ceiling in the Franco-Flemish manner. The tester has become solid and of the same material as the rest of the bed.