Can you remember trips to your grandparents house when you were younger? Is there anything that sticks out in your mind? For me it was my grandma’s bedrooms and the antique iron beds she had in each of them. They stuck in my mind for a couple of reasons
The first was an accident I had on one of them while jumping up and down on it with my cousin. She’d pushed me and I lost my balance and ended up hitting my head on the iron foot board. That was my first understanding of how hard and unforgiving iron beds can be. A few stitches later and my memory faded and I was right back jumping up and down. But I did have a renewed respect for how hard grandma’s beds were.
The other reason grandma’s beds stuck in my mind was that they were so different from what my parents had and what I was use to. This was in the late 50’s and early 60’s when a more modern trend in furnishing had taken hold. Wooden headboards with matching night stands and dressers were all the rage. Matching bedroom sets left little to the imagination. It wasn’t necessary to try and find furniture that looked good together in the same room. Buying a set that was all made of the same material seemed what everyone wanted.
That was probably why grandma’s house seemed so warm and inviting. Her furniture was a hodge podge of mismatched pieces she and grandpa had collected over the years either because of their practicality or jsut because they were pieces they enjoyed and liked. Matching pieces to them wasn’t important. A slave to fashion, they weren’t. But their eclectic style of decorating impressed me more than the “cookie cutter” desgn style I was use to seeing in all our friends homes. Iittle did I know that many years later, the impressions I’d formed in my grandparents home regarding decorating would have such a strong influence.
Many years later, after getting into buying and selling antiques, specifically specializing in antique iron beds, I called my grandmother and told her what I’d gotten into and that I’d love to be able to keep those iron beds I fondly remembered from her house, in the family. She laughed and said she’s gotten rid of them ages ago. I asked what she’d gotten for them because they were now so collectible. She paused and then said she’s only had to PAY $50. to have them carted away. She said the local “junk” man had come and gotten them.
What grandma and everyone else in her small Pennsylvania town didn’t realize was that the “junk” man had weekly antique dealers visit his warehouse every week from as far away as New York City and Miami Florida.
That local “junk” dealer is what we now refer to as a “picker”
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 our company Face Book page for multiple photo albums on Custom Finishes, Canopy Conversions and a comprehensive “Before & After” King Conversions album.
