Look closely on this beautiful antique iron bed from the mid-1800’s and you’ll see prominent, detailed “Rams Head” castings on all four corners. So what could the manufacturers or foundries that poured these castings have been thinking about, to have designed them for the corners of their beautiful iron bed ?
Well lets look at what a Rams Head may represent in the “Victorian” era………. The first and probably most popular meaning may have been “strength” and power. But I tend to think it was a far more subtle meaning………….such as qualities of “protection” and “guardianship”.
Sleep was considered another “dimension” in that period and if your antique iron bed surrounded you with, while you slept, with protection from unseen intruders ………..well that would have afforded the inhabitants of the bed, the time they needed to recharge their batteries and attack the day………every morning.
But what if iron beds and their Rams Head castings held a much more spiritual meaning………….. Throughout history “Rams Heads” have various mythological meanings. Quite often those interpretations were dependent on the cultural background that was employing them.
After all is said and done, I like to think the most accepted symbolizeum for “Rams Head” castings on antique iron beds, would have been to serve as a decorative symbol of enhanced fertility and well wishes for a successful union.
Few symbols that found themselves into the cast iron castings of antique iron beds from the mid-1800’s held such definite and profound meaning as “Rams Heads”.
