Over the years I’ve seen a number of old catalogs and advertising material on antique iron beds. The thing that seems to stand out the most in all of their literature and sales pitch is the cleanliness angle. Iron beds preached the benefits of being clean and “Vermin-Proof”. Although there’s really no reason to believe iron beds were any cleaner and rodent proof, than their wooden bed frame predecessor . It was just as easy for a mouse to climb up the side of a 
“dust ruffle’ hanging down the side of a metal bed as it was on a wooden bed frame.
The other thing that always strikes me are the prices of these beds. The Sanitaire Iron Bed Company had a price range from $5. to $25. Little did they know, the beds they were producing would become one of the more sought after collectible antique’s we have today.
In looking at the different photo’s and artist sketches that were done of the different models, I notice I’ve had just about every bed I’ve seen in the old catalog.
I came across a newspaper article for the John Smyth Company out of Chicago Il. Ironically we have a custom antique faux finish for our iron beds called the Black Smyth. In the Smyth ad they mention their metal beds being “…………beautiful and healthful and recommended by physicians as insect-proof”.
They also mentioned all sizes and colors. All sizes referred to just twins and doubles…there were no other sizes back then. Except for an occasional 3/4 size. Most people think metal beds back then were all painted white or black……they couldn’t be more wrong and this ad proves it.
