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Saturday, June 18, 2011

3/4 Maple Sacking Bottom Bed (ca. 1840)

One of the pieces I am currently working on is a 3/4 size bed made of Maple that dates to around 1840. The only exception to the Maple is the Pine head and foot boards. This bed is what is called a sacking bottom bed and is often mistaken for a rope bed. The difference is that in a rope bed, the rails would be pierced and the rope would thread through the posts, making up a web that the mattress could sit on. The sacking bottom bed has a canvas with grommets, similar to a modern tarp, that is stretched and tied with ropes. The rails have pegs which protrude for the rope to wrap around.

For a detailed description with drawings, you can follow this link:

http://www.countrybed.com/ancillary_pages/reference/Rope.shtml


One of the things that I find interesting about this bed is its construction. The side rails and the rails below the head and foot board were turned. At each end of a rail, the rails were threaded so that they screw into the posts. What this means is that the bed can be completely dismantled for storage. The flip side of this is that it takes three people to put this bed together! One to hold each post, and a third person to screw the rails in place. The result is that the bed is very tight when assembled, and the original sacking bottom would have pulled the rails so that they got even tighter, eliminating a squeaky,loose bed (a rarity in antique beds).

As time went on and people switched over to a box spring, these beds were converted, and this is the case with this particular bed. The original rails for the bed were discarded and new more traditional rails retrofitted , probably some time in the late 19th century.

The bed was in decent shape when I got it, but needed some structural repairs which meant removing the finish. Below are a series of photos that show the repair work in progress.

Here are two photos of the head and foot board. You can see the holes in the posts where the original rails would have threaded in. The long vertical mortises next to the holes accommodate the hardware for the replacement rails.
LinkOn the rails, there were boards added to the top at either end for decoration. One of these boards was very loose and had fallen off. Below is a photo of the boards followed by a photo of the repair.

Both the head and the foot board had cracks in them which came from shrinkage in the wood. Luckily the crack in the foot board was not to severe, and I was able to draw it together with screws that were hidden, minimizing the visual impact of the repair. The head board had a more significant crack that had been previously fixed with an iron mending plate. The plate was removed and three butterfly patches were inlayed into the back side of the head board. Below are some photos of this process. The patches will later be touched up.

The crack in the head board and the mending plate.
The three butterfly patches laid out.
Carving out the mortises for the dovetails.
All three mortises carved out and ready for the butterfly patches
The three butterfly patches in place. The crack was later wedged with wood on both sides.
The rails for the head and foot board were turned out of solid maple. Finding turning blanks that were this large in diameter has always been a problem. As a result when the bed was made, the cabinet maker used a piece with a little bit of bark inclusion. The bark was situated so that it was on the underside and not visible. Over time this bark has fallen out a bit and at the end a significant portion of the wood and bark was torn off. I decided to patch the missing portion of the wood and fill the bark areas. They will eventually be fauxed to look like bark again.

Below is a photo of the damaged area.

Using a router and a special jig I made, I was able to create a flat spot for a patch to fit into.
In this photo, the patch is being glued in place.
Here is the patch, ready for carving.
To round over the patch, I used a hand plane to remove the majority of the material, followed by some chisel work and some final sanding. Here is the patch after it was carved.
One of the rails was bowed pretty badly and to remedy this, I replaced the slat supports with new straight and sturdy supports. There is still a little waviness to the wood, but it reduced the bow to 1/8 of an inch across the entire length of the rail. Here is a photo of the new slat supports being glued in place.
There was a little damage to the turning on the bed. The photo below shows that there is finish on the broken area of the turning. This and other indicators led me to believe that this bed had been refinished in the past, and helped me to make a decision about removing the existing finish. Below are a few photos of the patching of this broken area.
The initial patch glued in place.
The patch after it was carved down.
These last two photos show the bed after the repairs were made and the pieces sanded. In my next post I will show the fabrication of the new slats and also the completion of the bed.



5 comments:

  1. John,
    I have just acquired one of these beds. All but one of the pegs is intact. The bed is in phenomenal shape for how old it is. It has not been changed to accomodate a traditional mattress, the rails and head and foot board are all in fabulous shape. One of the finials (not sure if that is the correct term) is partially broken off. The finish looks as though sometime over the years someone tried to refinish it or varnish it. I would like to bring it back to life. I am going to have a sacking bottom made for it. I'd like to send you some pictures of it and see what you think. where can I send them? Thanks for having this online, my husband and I were trying to figure out how we were going to get the rails attached...
    Elaine in Valley City Ohio

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello-

    I have a a similar bed but it seems to be a Jenny Lind sacking bottom bed with the round rails that screw in. Unfortunately when I bought the bed, the owner did not know what happened to the side rails so I currently have a pretty headboard and footboard... but no bed. Is this something that can be bought at antique stores or something that I should just have made? I can send pics if needed.

    Thanks you!

    Erica

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello-

    I have a a similar bed but it seems to be a Jenny Lind sacking bottom bed with the round rails that screw in. Unfortunately when I bought the bed, the owner did not know what happened to the side rails so I currently have a pretty headboard and footboard... but no bed. Is this something that can be bought at antique stores or something that I should just have made? I can send pics if needed.

    Thanks you!

    Erica

    ReplyDelete
  4. Found this maple Sacking bed, simular to yours with 4"× 4" side rails. These are original side rails. The pegs for stringing rope to support sack had been cut away (still see the remnants of pegs embedded in wood). The rails were rotated 1/4 then fitted with handmade bolts and metal brackets to attach headboard and footboard before we bought it-sometime in later 1800's we surmise.
    We lengthened the rails and reversed them (onto opposite sides) to go toward the inside to make bed narrower. Then sistered the rails with mahogany support platforms to hold slats. This bed is in remarkable shape for being 150-200 years old. It has now been varnished to preserve the wood. Our goal is to gain use of bed for several generations to come...as well as appreciate its beauty and strength and design of goneby years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Found this maple Sacking bed, simular to yours with 4"× 4" side rails. These are original side rails. The pegs for stringing rope to support sack had been cut away (still see the remnants of pegs embedded in wood). The rails were rotated 1/4 then fitted with handmade bolts and metal brackets to attach headboard and footboard before we bought it-sometime in later 1800's we surmise.
    We lengthened the rails and reversed them (onto opposite sides) to go toward the inside to make bed narrower. Then sistered the rails with mahogany support platforms to hold slats. This bed is in remarkable shape for being 150-200 years old. It has now been varnished to preserve the wood. Our goal is to gain use of bed for several generations to come...as well as appreciate its beauty and strength and design of goneby years.
    Thank you - wish we could send you pictures...

    ReplyDelete