Having been in the bed business for over forty years. It never ceases to amaze me the buying trends we go in and out of each year. Traditionally, iron beds are not big sellers at the holidays. My sales would usually start kicking in the first couple of weeks in January. People get through the holidays, receive gift money and see where they are financially. Then there are odd years like now ,that finds record number of customers coming to us at the last minute requesting photo’s of our inventory and then, knowing there’s really now way, this late in the game to get them for Christmas, giving a photo of the bed they selected, as the present.
I had a wonderful customer who is in the military stationed in Iraq, buy a beautiful bed for his wife, who is here in the states. He won’t get a chance to use it until his tour is done. Here’s wishing him and his wife a life time of comfortable peaceful nights together in their 200 year old antique iron beds.
I shipped a bed to a client in Ireland a few years ago. One of the stipulations, when he bought it, was that it arrived before Christmas. It was for his 90 year old mother who had wanted one like the one she had growing up in Pennsylvania. When she moved back to Ireland to take care of her ailing mother, she was force to leave most of her things in this country. Over a period of time her things seemed to find there way into relatives homes and she always regretted losing her childhood bed. After the bed , her son bought, arrived…… she called her son and said it was the best present she’d ever received. The memories she had of her bed in Pennsylvania, when she was growing up must have been pretty powerful to have last a life time. And they must have been pretty good to have continually wanted a replacement .
Over ten years ago I had a school teaching, single mom come to me in April and bought two beds for her twin daughters. Knowing it was going to be a difficult purchase for two daughters on a public school paycheck, she decided to take advantage of our payment plan. Again…… wanting to make sure that the beds she bought could be refinished boxed and arrive by Christmas. Besides the twin daughters she had that were 13 years old, she also had three other children….two older and one younger than the twins. Her husband had passed away and she had taken up the reins by going back to school and getting her teaching credentials. It’s hard not to have a tremendous amount of respect for a single parent who keeps their family together and does such a good job of it. Like clock work, every month she’d sent a partial payment toward the matching beds she’d gotten for the twins. We had them refinished exactly the same and shipped a couple of weeks before Christmas. Recently I heard from her and she said her daughters had moved to New York and are in the fashion industry. She was looking for two more iron beds. Seems her twins took theirs with them to the Big Apple.
Christmas and antique iron beds always seem to have a story.
I hope you’ve found this blog informative . I invite you to revisit my website
to answer any and all questions you might have about antique iron beds.
I also invite you to take a look at our company Face Book page for multiple photo albums on Custom Finishes, Canopy Conversions and a comprehensive “Before & After” King Conversions album.
