Object Record
Images
Additional Images [12]
Metadata
Object ID # |
2017.010.001abcdef |
Object Name |
Bed, Spool |
Title |
Double Spool Bedstead, with Rope Supports |
Date |
c. 1869? |
Year Range from |
1860 |
Year Range to |
1885 |
Made |
Unknown |
Place of Origin |
Arnott, Township of Chatsworth, Grey County? |
Description |
Wooden double spool bed (rope bed). The turned wood posts have a nippled urn finial. There are nine spool-turned spindle inserts inside each end. The pole-style shafts for the ropes have eight pegs for the rope springs to be attached. The shafts have wooden screw thread ends. There are two similar white-painted pole stretchers in the ends, each with five pegs for the rope. A dark brown finish was used on the headboard (a) and footboard (b), and considerable wearing has occurred on the shafts (c & d). Two bundles of rope (e & f) still exist with this bed. |
Provenance |
Unknown maker, but possibly made by John McKay or someone in the Wheildon or Murray families. It was used at the farm home of John McKay and Margaret McKay (née Murray), in the Arnott area of Holland Township, Grey County. They married in 1869. John McKay and his brothers had emigrated from Scotland in the early 1860s. The McKay farmhouse was at Lots 2-4, Concession 2 WTSR (RR#1 Chatsworth, West of the Toronto & Sydenham Road). The only son, Wilfred McKay (=Charles Wilfred McKay), married Martha Wheildon in 1919 and carried on the family farm. The item was passed down to their daughter, Isobel Kirk (née McKay), who kept it at her residence in Owen Sound. It last belonged to her daughter Cathy Niergarth (née Kirk), who found it while clearing her mother's house. |
Collection |
Furniture, 19th-c Collection |
Material |
Wood/Rope/Finish |
Dimensions |
H-44 W-50 D-9 inches |
Found |
Owen Sound, Grey County |
People |
McKay, John |
Subjects |
Beds Bedtime Bedrooms Ropes |
Search Terms |
Holland Township |
Function |
A bedstead that was used in a Grey County farmhouse in the late 19th-century, and very likely made in the Arnott area. The rope springs would have to be tightened occasionally. There likely would have been a feather or straw-stuffed mattress on top of them. In the 1860s, the word "bed" referred more to the mattress, whereas the term "bedstead" was used for the wooden frame. Bolster-style wide pillows were used in that period, which slightly raised up the sleepers. The turnings would likely have been made with a treadle-power lathe. |