(ps - if you know of anyone who has plans or working drawings of traditional settle beds please get in touch).
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Settle beds
The settle bed is a piece of furniture you don't see too often these days. I came across one a few months ago but sadly the present owners don't show any signs of wanting to part with it! Its form is simple, essentially a large wooden fireside seat, hinged along the front (floor-level) edge to allow it to open out to become a large box. With an old millet mattress and a pile of blankets this then becomes a fireside bed. Beautiful in their simplicity, and with the shocking price of home heating oil, maybe these should make a comeback. Pics below from various websites.
(ps - if you know of anyone who has plans or working drawings of traditional settle beds please get in touch).
(ps - if you know of anyone who has plans or working drawings of traditional settle beds please get in touch).
Lovely pics Mark, but I don't think these ones are from Ulster? Like our dressers, they usually rest on 'sledge runners at either end, with projecting toes. A feature (like rocking chairs) that adapt the furniture so that it doesn't 'shoogle' on an uneven floor. All the settle beds in the Ulster Folk Museum - and the one in storage at the Jackson Center, have these sledge feet.
ReplyDeleteYou can buy the plans from a patent website for 11.95 dollars http://www.patentstorm.us/cart/view.html
ReplyDeleteI sat on one of these recently, in the old Cushendall farmhouse at the Ulster Folk Museum recently & played my Fiddle for an afternoon. Not the most comfortable seats, it has to be said, but very practical I'm sure, for the time.
ReplyDelete