Historically, this loose term was given to all beds from the 18th to mid-19th Centuries. Before box springs, beds consisted of wooden frames laced together with ropes or cords – woven from north to south and east to west – designed to support a “tick” or mattress.

To discover if you have the “real McCoy,” a close examination of the construction and rail material is required. The bed must have mortise and tenon joinery; the posts should be solid not laminated wood, heavy to the touch and out of round. The rails must show evidence where ropes were attached and are the best indicator of age – usually 3” x 4” birch or maple wood.

Lowpost Beds

Lowpost Beds (40”-50”H) are considered more of a common man’s bed today than a tallpost bed. However, early beds of any style were a luxury and not considered a household necessity for each family member until the mid-19th Century. The fanciful designs originated as much from the maker’s desire to be creative as the symbolic beliefs of the day - everything from the revolutionary war cannonball to the new beginnings of the acorn.

Tallpost Beds

Tallpost beds were originally designed to support a canopy frame or “tester” on which draperies would be hung to keep the occupant(s) private and warm. New England tallpost beds began with the simple pencil bed and evolved to the high style elegance of the fluted Chippendale, inlaid Hepplewhite and reeded Sheraton.

Headboards

For most 18th Century beds, headboards were viewed as a practical necessity rather than decoration. The earlier headboards were fit low into the posts near the crossrails to help contain the sewn mattress or “tick” and to keep pillows away from the wall. The average headboard was quite small, only about 12″-14″ high and set into the posts with one long slot rather than two tabs as found in beds after 1800. Over time, bedmakers expressed more creativity in their headboard designs - adding height, decorative scrolls, panels, molding, fancy grained woods, carvings and even rolls for primping and smoothing the mattress. Gone were the simple pine and maple headboards of an earlier era.