So what was the purpose of manufacturers adding the more difficult and costly brass scrolling to their more affordable iron beds ? It was their desire to attract the more popular clientele that were buying all “brass bed frames“.
Antique Iron beds offered the public, in the 1800’s, a number of things that “brass beds” didn’t. One was their ability to be painted any color, or combination of colors, making them able to blend with their interior surroundings and bed linens. Beds were not just painted white or black during this period. But when they were, quite often the small independently owner foundries and manufacturers would offer “gold guild” detailing on the castings. The casting were usually some form of Victorian floral design and highlighting them offered a great contrast between the tubing and the castings.
When antique iron bed producers started offering scrolled brass, throughout the interior of their designs, they saw an immediate increase in popularity and sales. Because antique iron beds offered the structural rigidity that brass beds didn’t have, adding brass in just an aesthetic, non-structural manner, soon helped iron bed makers secure more and more of the market. Their attention to the publics desire for more “design” for less than brass bed manufacturers were charging, eventually enabled them to capture the largest share of the bed frame market. But by realizing the popularity of brass beds and integrating brass into their own iron bed designs they mad antique iron beds the most popular and collectable antiques of our day.
Hope you’ve found this little tutorial on antique iron bed popularity in the mid-1800’s, interesting. We hope you’ll take the time to circle back around to our website, to see what we have to offer.
