Andrew 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…
In 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…
This 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…
Over thirty years ago I started buying and selling iron beds iin the Washington DC area where I lived and went to school.
When 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…
If 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…
Take a look at this iron bed frame. It was made in the Pittsburgh Pa. back in the mid 1800’s. Yet it’s definite “Deco” design would not come into existence until it was introduced in Paris France in the 1920’s.
Many years ago, after opening my store in Santa Monica Ca., I had the distinct pleasure of selling the first of many subsequent iron beds to the one and only “Boss”, Bruce Springsteen. He and his wife Patti wondered into my store one afternoon and proceeded to select one of the best antique iron beds…
Here is a photo of an antique iron bed we converted from it’s original antique double size, to todays modern king size.
I’ve yet to encounter an iron bed that once converted to a canopy doesn’t look more impressive and regal. It’s a funny thing, but back in the 1800’s the people that were producing iron beds in this country didn’t make canopies. That was something only coming out of Europe. The British were big into canopies…