Here is a photo of a iron bed casting, before it was sandblasted, and the same iron bed casting after it has been sandblasted and refinished with our Black Smyth finish.
Iron beds get the name from the cast iron castings that hold the design element of the iron bed together.
When you hear about reproduction iron beds being made today…… you can rest assured they aren’t iron beds. They’re aluminum beds. But because the term cast iron beds is so popular and what people identify with…….it’s stuck.
How many peopel do you think would beat a path to buy a aluminum cast bed…… right…..not too many.
The character and beauty of antique iron beds and early wrought iron beds were the incredibly detailed castings the small independently owned foundries poured on their own iron bed designs. It’s pretty much a rule of thumb……..if the castings are detailed and large……the iron bed is a good one.
Great castings, like this one, have always been one of the most important things in determining the value and collectability of an iron bed. Few interior designers would deny, their clients would much rather have an iron bed with detailed castings, on their iron beds, than plain unimaginative castings used simply to hold the design element of the iron bed together.
Castings…….look them over closely. They’re what make your iron bed valuable.
I hope you’ve found this blog informative . I invite you to revisit my website
to answer any and all questions you might have about antique iron beds.
I also invite you to take a look at the multiple “Before & After” photo’s on our company Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/ – %21/pages/Cathouse-Antique-Iron-Beds/126838177398