As some of you, and the list of those who do, gets smaller every day, remember….”Arsenic and Old Lace” was a great old comedy classic movie from 1944 staring Cary Grant. Well this blog doesn’t have a dam thing to do with that movie………. What it does have to do with is “old lace” and…
The following photo is one of the purest examples of an Art Nouveau bed that I’ve ever come across. The photo to the left of it is of a stair case in the Victor Horta Museum in Brussells. The strict definition of Art Nouveau is: A reaction to academic art of the 19th century, it…
This is a “before & after” photo of a bed I had converted to king and canopy for some very close friends of ours. As you can see in the photo the castings are very large and nicely detailed. This bed itself lent it self, from a style standpoint, to nicely being converted to a…
The majority of the antique iron beds that were being made back in the early to mid 1800’s were Victorian style designs with beautiful open scrolls and smooth curved lines. So to come across a unique style bed that was made at the same time, but looked as though it was a bed that had…
Many years ago I was setting in my store in Santa Monica, when a long stretch limousine pulled up out front and double parked in the slow lane. Some might think this an unusual occurrence, but being in a well to do section of Los Angeles, something like this was quite common place. But what…
A French Curve is the outer side pole of an antique iron bed that curves out beyond the normal double width of the bed. Most iron beds from the early to mid 1800’s measured approximately 53″ to 54″ wide. I’ve actually had some that had the “French Curve” sides that measured as much as 60″…
In 1995 I was approached by a publicist who had asked me to select an iron bed for a photo shot on the beach for her client, who had just been nominated for and Academy Award. She had wanted the bed to have a white chipped finish, because her client was going to be wearing…
Back in late 1984 I had just opened a new store on Montana Ave in Santa Monica. At the time it was a sleepy little street with not much foot traffic. I had started advertising in local papers and a set directors directory that was distributed to all the studios , film companies and set…
Many years ago I went against my better judgment and allowed a client to talk me into converting a very thin gauge antique iron bed into a modern king size. Because additional tubing needs to be welded into the width of the interior design, the tubing going across the top of the bed should always…
Close to thirty years ago I was just getting started in the iron bed business. At that time I was living Washington DC, going to school at George Washington Univ. and doing all my antique buying within a comfortable “one days” drive throughout Pennsylvania, W. Virginia, and Ohio and a little in Maryland and Virginia.…