Room for Guests

                             

 

Birch Press Bed, c. 1810

Accession #: 1992.0002

Around this time of year the Randolphs would have been anticipating visitors for their Twelfth Night celebration which took place 12 nights after Christmas day. They prepared their house for the celebration not only by decorating, but also getting the bed chambers ready for guests who might stay the night. A press bed like this one might have been one of the pieces of furniture pulled out for use by the Randolphs’ guests. The family would have had this bed taken out from where it was stored to get ready for the guests who would stay at their house during the Twelfth Night celebration.

This one is a birch press bed, or folding bed, painted red with a shaped headboard. Press means “cupboard or cabinet”. The beds were called this because they could be easily folded and stored in these types of furniture when not in use. They became popular when carpenters designed beds to become part of the décor of the room. The beds could masquerade as wardrobes or sideboards, or be concealed behind bookcases or other furniture when not in use. Some folding beds were put behind curtains or had curtains hung on them when they were not being used as well. As one historian describes this, “The side rails had cleverly designed hinged joints very near the bedhead allowing the bed to be raised and hidden behind the curtains”. They were also ideal for houses with limited space. The Randolphs may have not had room for the number of regular beds necessary to accommodate their overnight guests.

The press bed would have solved this predicament for the Randolphs. It could be easily stored either in or behind a cabinet or clothes press or behind one until it was needed. Not made to impress the guests, the press bed nevertheless served as a comfortable place to sleep at night. It would remain against the wall until the visitor needed it. “Its hinged legs sit flat against the frame” waiting to be folded out while the rope, in the word of one writer, “pulled taut through holes in the frame [would] form a springlike netting”.  Beds which had ropes that had to be tied tight to support the mattress were thought to be where the expression “sleep tight” comes from. Roping could have been held by “small turned knobs” on the “better quality” beds which is like the one the Randolph's owned. Simpler ones just had holes through which the rope was strung. The straw, corn husks, or pine boughs stuffed mattress put on the birch press bed would have been a welcoming resting place for a guest of the Randolphs after a night of celebrating.

Come to Wilton to see how the Randolphs might have also decorated as they anticipated guests arriving for the Twelfth Night celebration. You can get a taste of what this night meant to the Randolphs by joining us for our Twelfth Night Ball, January 6th, 2012. Visit wiltonhousemuseum.org for more details.

Bibliography

Old and Interesting. “Box Beds, Bed Recesses, Press Beds, and Bedsteads”. 18 July 2007. 6             December 2011. <http://www.oldandinteresting.com/box-beds.aspx>.

Furniture Styles. “Early American Colonial Beds”. International Styles, 2011. 6 December 2011.             <http://www.furniturestyles.net/american/antique/beds/colonial.html >

Obbard, John W. Early American Furniture.  Kentucky: Collector Books, 2006.

"Projects from your workbench" Colonial Homes. July-August 1985.