Southern Pencil Post Beds

Re: Southern Pencil Post Beds *LINK*

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>I do not know if this is what you need, but if you click on the link below, and read down to the Pencil Post Beds link in the text, the page to which you are redirected has some woods, etc., info.

(thanks for making me look this up!)


Beds

Re: Southern Pencil Post Beds

L. Hanson - N. Idaho

>Thanks for the link, Don! Some nice stuff there. I was looking for something to give me ideas on just such a thing.

Leif

www.norsewoodsmith.com

way too long- sorry :(

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>Patrick,

In Watson's �Annals of Philadelphia�, he says before the revolution, Philadelphia tradesmen (middle class) had beds made of tulip (poplar) painted green.

Unfortunately the historical record is not much more robust and not at all clear when it comes to common beds (and other common furnishings for that matter). One reason belies a failing of understanding in my own micro community of reproduction furniture makers. Unlike the Dutch, English tradition held that the depiction of common people in artwork to be offensive. As recently as the early 20th century, art critics were offended by Thomas Eakins (perhaps the greatest American painter) depiction of the Biglin brothers. The Biglin brothers were well known rowers. Unlike my upper class teammates at Rutgers, rowers then were probably thugs. Crew was a popular �betting� sport like horse racing.

The point, of course, is that much of what we know about period beds is based on an unscientific sampling of upper class interiors. Reproduction furniture makers like me, continue to reproduce the exceptional and claim it to be typical. As a result, the exact form of such a bed cannot be known, anymore than we can speculate on regional varieties. I believe this affords the non-professional who needn�t concern himself with critics, experts, or customers influenced by critics and experts, the opportunity to do a little experimental archeology. We can start with we do know: (I�m sorry, I think this is fun stuff)

1) Green was a common color in Philadelphia at least. It was a copper based pigment and very inexpensive. Shutters, and Venetian blinds, toolchests (!) and perhaps the preponderance of woodwork in a house may have been painted green (as well as Windsor chairs). Was this for protection or esthetics is hard to know for certain. I guess you could be �safe� by saying it was a combination of the two.

2) The cost of lumber then seems to reflect the sawing, not the species (or at least as far as I can tell thus far- I need more data). Tulip is a tree often used for second grade products (and often painted). They were fully aware of its tendency to check during drying. It does rive well green though and is easy to work. It grows fast and straight. I suspect it was chosen for beds because it was light, good for little else, and could be riven into bedposts and rails to save on sawing.

3) Northern Beds, at least, were draped, undoubtedly to keep the sleeper(s) warm. The drapery was supported in different ways. I�ve seen early beds with drapery simply attached to the ceiling. Otherwise the tall bed posts supported a frame on which the drapes were hung. The tops of the drapery were concealed by a narrow valence called a tester. These drapes completely concealed the bed frame. Likewise, a drapery concealed the head board if there was one at all. Drapes were opened during the day by winding them around a post. This sometimes revealed the lower leg of the bed but sometimes not. A flat skirt was sometimes tacked to the rails to cover (the rope) the space under the bed (which could be used for storage- including a chamber pot in many instances).

4) Drapery may have also been used for privacy. 18th century homes rarely had any division between private and public space. There may well have been a bed in the room you and I would call the living room. Certainly space was tight enough such that if there were separate rooms, all would be used to the fullest extent. There is a barely surviving English tradition (and I suspect adopted in the South) that meals be held in the best possible environment as opposed to a predetermined typical space dedicated to the purpose. Thus, there was no dining room. Meals were taken outside, in a bed chamber, upstairs or downstairs depending on the circumstances, number of diners, and environmental conditions.

5) I have seen beds assembled without bed bolts. Period mattresses contained loose materials that could be shaped to eliminate the effects of sagging rope. Tightening the ropes to eliminate sag is probably not the best idea. Tension loads could probably crack the bedstead (frame). It seems to me if you can take care of the sag in the middle, perhaps with a middle support like a summer beam, rope remains a reasonable way to suspend a modern mattress.

6) The fabric tester and curtains (and sometimes typical dust ruffle) require as much as 30 yards of material. This doesn't include sheets, bolster (pillows) bedspreads, bedding and the like. For the sake of comparison, one of my shirts (shifts) can be made from about a yard and a half of material (and I'm pretty big). This is a lot of fabric. A Chippendale couch requires 15-20 yards.

I recently sought to acquire a traditional open checked, window pane linen fabric for a bed I have planned. Weaving material is a time consuming process. This is not to mention all the steps required to go from flax plants to thread. When it is done by someone whose wage is comparable to your own, it can be extremely expensive. The weaver I contacted uses modern machinery. She (Rabbit Goody is her name) offered a very reasonable and typical price for the fabric I wanted (approx $50/yd). That's $1500 in fabric to cover a period bedstead.

This is probably a bit cheaper than it would have been 250 years ago. Its very likely that bedding (including the drapery) was the most expensive item in the house.

Armed with this information, you could take a stab at a good period bed that makes sense. Based you�re your particular environment, including your existing d�cor, would bed hangings be appropriate? Lost post beds were certainly known. I forgot to mention earlier that bed hangings by mid 18th century would almost always match the window dressings and any other upholstery in the room.

If bed hangings are to be used, what would be the preferred form of the upper portions of the posts (that would be always concealed)? How about the headboard? What about the lower leg? Bed heights have changed over the years. My wife likes a high bed for some reason. Perhaps a feeling of safety? I�ve seen mention of a preference for low beds because they were easier for the aged to get in and out of. If the bed is low and a lower valence is used, what could be seen of the lower leg? If a high bed is used, everyone�s wife will desire a lower valence to conceal boxes of shoes and suitcases. So what of the lower legs then? As a period cabinetmaker/joiner, if you were unable to turn such a leg (due to the limitations of your lathe�s bed and possible Guild restrictions on such activity) how would you shape your bedposts? If you choose to carve, where would you put your effort?

I don�t know about you, but I have an image in my mind that seems to meet the criteria. It�s a form I very, very rarely see reproduced, yet its hard to argue with such a seemingly practical shape.

Adam

P.S. (as if I haven�t bored you enough) if you were to make bed hangings, I would most certainly consult the ionic column orders. The tester should be the capital, and either the rails or the top of the mattress should be the plinth. For a 7-1/2� high bedstead, that makes the tester 1� high and the rails or mattress 18� off the floor.

Re: way too long- sorry :(

Patrick Gibbons, Bayou City, TX

>Adam, Quite a good post you've made here, all puns intended. Though not voiced in my original post, I had reservations about the use of poplar but was hoping someone would ease them for me. I was also interested if this style of bed was used much at all, particularly in the new South (Mississippi, Alabama and those states formed after the post-Revolutionary period). Your reflections on bed linens and the like is intuitively correct to me. I would point out that in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, during the vision of the Ghost of Christmas Future, it is Scrooge's bed linens that the thieves are trying to fence after his death.

Re: way too long- sorry :( And now OT too.

Skip in Falls Church

>My wife, a self described fiber junkie, spins and weaves by hand - generally she uses wool. Wool thread is a lot thicker than linen (or cotton) and has a lower thread count per inch. Warping up the loom is a real project using wool (something that I normally do for her) I can't even imagine doing it with linen. And her loom is limited making material a yard wide. The mind just boggles. In any case, I'm not the only one in the house that makes things by hand. :)

Re: way too long- sorry :(

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Good get on the Dickens.

BTW, I don't know about the new South; but my family in Richmond, VA had pencil posts coming out of their ears. If there were canopies, they were draped on bed frames, not anchored to the ceiling. In fact, I've got one now, trying to figure out whether/how to put it in a bedroom.

Pam

Mosquitoes

Greg B�tit, Vergennes, VT

>The posts were put there for screens from airborne pests. I came to this realization while visiting my daugher in Kenya. She has a pencil post bed, and it was perfect for hanging the mosquitoe net.

A broad spectrum (topics, authors) of eighteenth century writings frequently mention the clouds of mosquitoes they were plagued with. No matter what the primary topic was, these little devils might pop up in the text.

They had no screens on their windows, and malaria was a public health concern in North America at the time. So even if they didn't need to tent up for warmth in the South, the textile barrier around a pencil post bed would allow some relief from these pests. Posted beds gave a little more appeal to Franklin's "early to bed" addage.

Greg