Bottom line………Buy US……….. The beds that were being manufactured back in the early to mid 1800’s in this country were far superior to the beds being made at the same time in England and the rest of the world. Why?……Simple…..the iron. The Pittsburgh Pa. steel mills were turning out the highest grade of iron ore in the world. Our tubing was thick wall steel tubing and was very rigid and strong. Te tubing being used in England and the rest of the world was a much thinner wall tubing with nowhere near the strength and rigidity. Our beds had castings that were of a much better quality and definition than those the British turned out. British casting were unimaginative and generally very plain. The British spiced up their antique iron beds with brass finials and corner brass balls and brass collars. Unfortunately their brass was of a much lesser quality than ours also. It was a mixture of alloys and also very thin. British brass is known for how weak it is. The corner collars are rarely intact and need to be replaced in any restoration. Many of the British beds were also 2″ diameter tubing and generally straight. Very few of them incorporated curved or scrolled iron. Take a look at the two beds photographed here. See if you can tell which one is American made and which one is the British made one.
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
