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…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsMany 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…
DetailsA 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″…
DetailsIn 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…
DetailsBack 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…
DetailsMany 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…
DetailsClose 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.…
DetailsI’m constantly and pleasantly surprised, when something like this happens……..because the antique iron bed she sent me was one we had sold to someone who then used it in the Country Living Magazine photo shoot. One of the funny things about this individual iron bed was the fact that the previous owner had refinished it…
DetailsThis one has a rather colorful past, if we’re to believe the “picker” we got it from. He canvases the New Orleans area and said that it came out of the red light district over 175 years ago, and had been handed down through the family of the madam that supposedly owned and operated the…
DetailsSo why, you ask, would anyone in there right mind paint an antique iron bed “barn red”. Over the years of dealing in iron beds I’ve come across “hundreds” of them that had been painted a very distinctive “barn red”. But then I’ve also come across a number or iron beds that were painted white,…
DetailsOver the years I’ve sold dozens and dozens of antique iron beds to companies for advertising campaigns and catalogs.
DetailsOne of the many determining factors that go in to the collectibility and value of an antique iron bed is the size of the tubing that goes around the perimeter of a bed frame and specifically across the top. Probably as high as 90% of all iron beds are made with 1″ thick wall tubing…
DetailsSo it would stand to reason that a foundry wouldn’t just make iron beds, back in the 1800’s. If the bed market got soft they had to have other things that they could produce with the foundries they had. If one month was slow with iron beds…. maybe the easiest and fastest thing to produce…
DetailsAndrew William Mellon (March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937) was an American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 until February 12, 1932. This bed was said to have been a wedding present for his wife Nora Mary McMullen, from Andrews mother Sarah Jane Negley Mellon, who…
DetailsIn the close to 40 years of being in the bed business I’ve only ever come across three other iron beds that had actual “faces” in the castings. This one is of a Victorian women with curly hair. Metal beds usually adorned themselves with scrolls and an occasional touch of brass. So to find something…
DetailsThis is a double size antique iron bed, that we converted to a modern king size and also a canopy for the movie producer Gale Anne Hurd. Her credits include such movies as The Terminator, The Abyss, Armageddon , Aliens….etc. etc. The bed originally started out as a beautiful “four poster” that I’d never seen…
DetailsOver thirty years ago I started buying and selling iron beds iin the Washington DC area where I lived and went to school.
DetailsWhen a very light gauge iron bed is converted to a canopy it becomes so much more impressive than when it was just a simple bed with head and footboard in their natural configuration.If you go one step further and make the top canopy poles curved up to a central casting, a traditional bed all…
DetailsIf you follow history you probably are aware that iron beds were not as popular in the west in the 1800’s as they were east of the Mississippi. Transporting beds to the west back in the 1800’s was not easy. It was costly, time consuming and difficult to transport large heavy items. People moving west…
Details
