Antique Bed

A bed is the resting place for all mammals including humans and animals. The difference being that humans are capable and intelligent enough to make them more comfortable and design them as per their convenience and comfort or space requirements whereas the animals could not do these, for them a bed is place where they can sleep and be safe from danger. BED can be defined as the article or a piece of furniture which allows the user to lie down and rest. Bed is that piece of furniture where the person can straighten his legs and lay down, parallel to the ground level making blood circulation uniform and hence relaxing the whole body. Straight posture while sleeping relaxes the leg muscles, backbone, and head (skull) thus inducing sleep and relaxing the person as a whole. This is the reason that Beds have become a necessity for the man’s daily life. Man’s imagination and craving for more comfort has enabled this piece of furniture to undergo changes in designs and structure for a lot of time since ages. Every era, every century has a mark of its style on not only the architecture but also the furniture as well.

Lavish and ornate beds were designed for the royalty by the craftsman of the particular era. For craftsmen, it became the field of to show their superiority and creativity. Most lavish beds embedded with rubies, find mention in the antique beds of medieval times and even in this millennium as well which were proudly show cased, to a selected few. These antique beds have now become a part of the legacy of the museums world over which show case these piece of excellent craftsmanship to the new generation. Though some of the Antique beds are in bad conditions and tattered, after so many years. Humidity affects the upkeep of both wood and iron beds. The professionals render their service to put life into these fading legacies of history. These professionals try to re-instate these work of art, and sometimes even reproduce or re make these beds on the structure of the original bed. Even when these beds are sold in the auction or otherwise, the buyer at times, tries to re-instate them. The feeling of using the same bed or sleeping on the same bed which was once used by one of the historical figure or just to witness something from the era of our forefathers/ancestors makes the prices of these beds sky rocket. There are craftsmen these days who can design the beds as the ones like antique beds. These arty craftsmen copy or imitate the designs and put in their designs and mould the structure according to the tastes or need/convenience of the buyer. These crafted beds are made on specific designs or comforts of the buyer and customized to his convenience. The most expensive bed these days is a designer bed which floats in the air. It is designed by Japanese scientist and is estimated to be of worth 1.5 million dollars. It uses magnetic field and thus keeps it afloat, suspended in the air. A bed’s structure consists of three main parts namely, headboard, foot board, and frame rails.

These have to be joined together to give stability and strength to the bed. These parts consists of small parts which are arranged in accordance to the design, size or structure of the bed as per the buyer’s need. The antique beds stand out because of their quality not only are these superbly designed but also because of the material used and the time dedicated by the arty craftsmen on these beds, overlooking all the major details be it minor or intricate. The craze in the 1800s was of “Hand Made Beds” these were specially worked upon by the craftsmen himself with his team, at times many days were consumed to build one bed only. This trend is even popular now, and the cost of such type of beds is many times the ordinary beds. The size of the antique beds are also special, at times these were created or build inside the palaces or rooms as it would have been difficult to build and deliver in the room because of the sheer size of the bed.

The iron beds were used in the years preceding world war. Iron beds were made popular because of not only their variety and style but also because of their durability, and light weightiness in comparison to the wooden beds. The strained supply of iron during the world war prompted the extensive use of cold steel for making beds. There are incidents quoted in the history about the architecture and designs of furniture of different countries and cultures. The example of Romans’ suggests that they had four kinds of beds. A bed used for only sleeping and relaxing was called Chamber bed. This was basically limited to the lower strata of the society. There was Table Bed mainly used by the Romans to lie down and eat and drink simultaneously. These were leisure beds which were large in size as well as they had the space for 3 people. A different type of bed was used to study or to go through the official work. A fourth kind of bed was the one used only for taking the deceased to the cremation ground before consigning to fire. The ancient or antique beds are rarely found and can only be witnessed either in auctions or at the museums. Though there are institutions who have procured these antique beds. These antique beds have a price tag which is decided by the prospective buyer. These being a part of history, are invaluable and to evaluate them monetarily is a difficult job and thus is decided by the active imagination or interest of the buyer, or the co-bidders. The term BED is also used in scientific terminology as well. This denotes the base or resting platform for the various components or machinery.