Bed, Four-Poster
- Object Name:
- Bed, Four-Poster
- Object ID:
- 1957.065.02.06
- Place of Origin:
- New Hampshire (probably)
- Date:
- 1735
- Description:
- Bed, high-post, with rope. Maple and pine. Nine pieces that fit together with mortise and tenon. Tapering posts (a.k.a. pencil posts) on four square legs, simple, pointed headboard. Molded rails with ropes. Foot posts are 80.5" high, 2" square at base, approximately 1.25" square at top. Each has two rectangular slots to accept the rails. The head posts are identical except for an additional slot for head board. Bottoms of posts are flat; tops each have a projecting nail (to hold drapery frame). Nail holes present on bottom portion of all the legs. Rails are all rock maple. The rails each have written in white chalk: "Pencil post". Length of side rails, including the tangs, is 71". In cross section, the rails are rectangular, 2.5" x 3", with a single tang on each end to fit into posts. Each side rail has eight drilled holes to accommodate a rope; also to accommodate a rope, is a full-length channel on the rail exterior. Top and bottom edges of rails are beaded. Short rails also say: "Pencil post" in chalk, and have several nail holes; short rails are 47.25" long including the tangs, and 2.5" square in cross-section; they have five drilled holes and a channel; edges are beaded. Headboard is pine, painted green; 46.1" wide including tangs, and 9.9" high; pointed top and flat bottom, and a single tang on either end to fit into the posts. Only one of the nine individual pieces is numbered.
- Material:
- Wood
Maple
Pine - Dimensions:
- H-81.75 W-48.5 D-73.5 inches
- Provenance:
- One of the items from the Prentis Collection -- given by Katherine Prentis Murphy and her brother Edmund Astley Prentis, in memory of Katherine's husband, David Edward Murphy -- which formed the contents of a suite of early New England "period rooms," meant to represent the home of a prosperous New England merchant c. 1730. The rooms were exhibited at the New Hampshire Historical Society (30 Park St.), 1957-1983. Donors purchased the bed from Roger Bacon of Brentwood, New Hampshire. "From Exeter" according to early Prentis Room literature.
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Katharine Prentis Murphy and Edmund Astley Prentis Jr., in Memory of David Edward Murphy
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