I’m often asked……. Since you’ve been dealing in antique iron beds for over forty years, what kind of beds do your daughters have? Well here’s my 17 yr old’s bed. It’s believed to have been a “commission bed” that was made specifically for Andrew Carnegie, the Pittsburgh Steel Magnet. It’s headboard weighs close to 155 lbs and the footboard is just a little under than. It’s one of the best iron beds I’ve ever come across or seen. You may have seen “reproductions of it, as I loaned it to a close friend who was in the reproduction business. But this is the original and only one I have ever seen.
The quality of a bed can often……not always be tied to it’s weight. The age of a metal bed can also be closely aligned with it’s weight. In the early 1800’s foundries didn’t concern themselves with light airy beds that could easily be moved around a room. Instead they made beds that once assembled , most likely would never budge, until disassembled.