Bed Warmer or warming pan
England or United States
1790-1840
Measurements
3-3/4 in x 43-1/2 in x 9-3/4 in (dia)
Materials
Brass, copper (rivets), iron (wire), maple (handle)
Credit Line
Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Memorial, Inc.
Accession Number
1971.936
Provenance
Gift of Elizabeth (Mrs. Frank S.) MacGregor. In a letter dated October 15, 1968, to Mrs. Harriet Curtis Reese of the David Wilson Memorial, the donor said, “MacGregors were early settlers in Londonderry, N.H., the area where it [i.e., the bed warmer] was made. It staid [sic] in the family from the date of great-grandfather MacGregor, about 1790, until it reached my husband, the last male descendant.”
Comments
A warming pan or bedwarmer allowed the user to fill it with hot embers and pass it between bedsheets prior to going to bed. In keeping with its status as an object of the wealthy, the domed lid is attractively decorated with punchwork and engraving that depicts a flower with three blossoms amid scrolled motifs. A band marked by double scribed lines enclosing ten pierced holes borders the lid. It attaches to the bowl with a five-part hinge riveted in place. The turned wood handle has an elongated baluster shaft separated from a baluster shaped handle by a ball with flanking reels. It attaches to the bowl by a cast brass socket that in turns is secured by three copper rivets. The rolled edges of the lid and the pan wrap around an iron wire—a widespread practice.
