Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Saturday 23 July 2016

Time for Bed

No sepia photos of bedrooms in my album, to match this week’s prompt image for Sepia Saturday, but I did find a couple of postcards in my inherited collection.


This one was picked up by my mother on a visit to the American Museum in Bath, about twenty years ago, and shows; ‘A New England Bedroom’. It is early 19th Century, with stencilled walls and bedspread.  The ‘field’ bed with serpentine tester (whatever that is) has, like the doll’s bed, a traditional American netted canopy. The rocking horse still has its original ‘fly net’ cover.


This one is a very old souvenir postcard of a visit to Ann Hathaway’s Cottage in Stratford-upon Avon (I’d guess 1960s). Ann was William Shakespeare’s wife, and he famously left her his ‘second best bed’ in his will. I wonder if this was it.

I was reminded me of a visit to Chestleton House in the Cotswolds a couple of years ago.




Two lovely carved beds (click to enlarge for the detail) offering different warming methods; the first an electric hot water bottle and the second a warming pan.
















Join us at Sepia Saturday to see what other contributors made of the prompt image below.


11 comments:

  1. Nice post, Nell. Not sure how I'd feel about an electric hot water bottle in the bed, though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes I was hesitant, Martin, but it was only the shape of a hot water bottle. - it had no fluid in it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent choices for the theme. The ornamental carving of beds are another mark of the value people once placed on furniture. As a woodworker I'm proud to say I've built all the beds in my home (6), sometimes using scavenged vintage wood from old houses and furnishings. But I'm usually in too much of a hurry to be artistic and add decorative carvings.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The New England bedroom has many fascinating objets...I wonder what those fanlike things on pedestals on the dresser are? Who got Shakespeare's best bed?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice beds. Amazing how different generations found comfort in sleeping in different ways. I once saw a bed George Washington slept in, and it seemed very small. But then, I remembered men slept in nightshirts at the time also.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There seems to be something odd on top of the four poster bed in Anne Hathaway 's cottage. You would think they would tidy the bed up before taking a photograph!

    ReplyDelete
  7. New England decor is always distinctive - must be the stenciling. Like Helen, I'm wondering who got the best bed and what that says about Shakespeare and Ann. Like Barbara, I'm remembering the beds in various historic homes I have toured. Even in the grandest homes, the beds were small and lumpy. I guess even the wealthy couldn't sprawl and stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the New England room - just my style. Congrats. on coming up with such an interesting post for this week's theme. I gave it a miss, as I have no photographs of bedrooms in my collection - in fact hardly any interior house shots at all and so inspiration failed me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wonder what happened to Shakespeare's best bed? Who was the lucky recipient? And those fancy carved headboards remind me of the Cardinal Richelieu's bed at Hearst Castle.

    You really did nail it this week with such interesting bedrooms.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Some very grand beds but I wouldn't trust an electric hot water bottle that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I’ve recently started a blog, the info you provide on this site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work. “A physicist is an atom’s way of knowing about atoms.” by George Wald.

    Regards
    Deep Web
    crazyask.com

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.