The Russian Empress, the English Earl and a Norfolk State Bed

An eighteenth-century canopy of state, made for John Hobart, second earl of Buckinghamshire and used on his embassy to the court of Catherine the Great, was converted into a state bed for a newly created grand apartment at Blickling Hall, Norfolk. It is a very rare survival in situ and reveals how such outward accoutrements of diplomatic service could be adapted to demonstrate an aristocrat’s status and pedigree of service to the monarch, and be displayed in an architectural setting to promote personal success and family lineage.