Yesterday I posted a blog that showed the casting on a bed of the “Lone Star” emblem of Texas, encased in a “horse shoe”. It was right our of the wild west and a definite Texas phenom.
This casting came on a bed that we found close to Chicago Illinois. Chicago had it’s share of larger foundries that turned out some really great iron beds of their time. The one that this particular “angel” casting was on, was one of the heavier and prettier ones I’ve come across. It was a massive bed, the likes of which few foundries bothered making because of it’s weight and size.
The anomaly of this particular casting on the antique iron bed that it’s on is it’s soft feminine design and beauty, being on one of the more massive beds I’ve ever come across. There may have been a distinct reason for this abnormality.
Beds of that period were garnering a large part of the wooden bed frame market. Which was not the most feminine and usually had more of a heavy masculine look. Metal beds went to the other end of the gender spectrum and attracted a very strong female clientele. But in so doing, manufactures tried their best do certain things that would not only appeal the the woman of the house but also the man. So if they designed a bed that was heavy and massive and appealed to the men of the house, they also tried to do certain things like detailed castings…..floral, Victorian designs, etc. that helped make everyone in the household happy.
