This photo is of a stack of iron beds from the early 1900’s. The obvious difference between these and the metal beds from the 1800’s is the degree of ornamentation and the total lack of decorative iron castings where the metal pieces are joined. More and more metal beds started hitting the market that had…
In 1943 Berea College, in Kentucky, participates in the WWII effort by organizing a scrap metal drive. Here students stand on iron bed frames and make a victory sign with the bed rails. These beds seem to have always been viewed as a “green” item to be used for the greater good in times of…
As you may have seen in a previous blog…….there were little iron beds being made for salesman to carry with them when they went from town to town taking orders for full size beds. These were called “salesman’s samplers”. Those miniature beds were distinctly different from the one in this photo. The miniature one in…
What’s one of the major differences between original old antique iron beds and modern bed frames………height? Back in the 1800’s, iron beds were design to elevate the mattress off the ground to get away from cold drafts and also to eliminate rodents and termites that permeated wooden bed frames. As the Industrial Revolution brought to…
The headboard is the only part of the bed that has canopy extensions on it. Instead of the canopy going completely down from the head to the foot board, it curves across the width of the bed about two feet from the headboard.. The nice thing about the “half tester” is that it still has…
What was the last piece of new furniture that you bought? How long have you had it? Can you sell it for what you paid for it……stop laughing. Of course you can’t. But do you know if you’d have bought an antique iron bed…….you could. And do you know that any antique bed you…
“Lay Lady Lay…..Lay Across My Big Brass Bed”. Does this song ring a familiar note? Listen to the words. Back in the very early 70’s I had just started selling brass beds. I use to play it in my store in Georgetown , Washington DC. Iron beds had yet to come into their own and brass…
In 1971 I was going to GW in Washington DC, when the Disney movie Bednobs and Broomsticks came out. I had just start dealing in brass beds and iron beds. I can distinctly remember the day the movie was released. I started getting calls from people looking for brass beds. I wasn’t aware of it,…
By far, my best repeat customers for my antique iron beds have always been my B&B patrons. It is customary for a B&B owner to start out with bed…….see how they like it and the response they get from their guests, and then consider getting more. What I always tell the owners of B&B’s is…
In the forty some years I’ve been buying and selling antique iron beds, I’ve never come across a bed like this with “mermaids” and a “crown” . There is also a beautifully detailed Victorian woman’s face and the “crown” sets above her head. In researching where this bed came from and it’s background, I learned…