From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, bedsteads were traditionally among the most costly items in an American household. This example, made for Stephen Van Rensselaer IV and his wife Harriet Bayard Van Rensselaer, was among the richest and most expensive crafted in early-nineteenth-century America. The bed's maker, French émigré Charles-Honoré Lannuier, designed the opulent bed with carved dolphin feet and embellished it with exotic burl wood veneers inlaid with cut-brass patterns. Originally, costly fabric hangings (hung from a "crown" on the wall) would have completely enclosed the bed for privacy and warmth.