Description:
Bed testers like this example were made in the late 19th and well into the twentieth centuries to adorn earlier-constructed four poster beds or camp/field bedsteads. These beds would originally have been decorated with curtains and valences as a way to display wealth and taste, as well as their practical function of providing warmth in the winter, and privacy at a time when bed chambers could have several occupants and rooms themselves more than one function. Many of these bed hangings worked in tandem with the tester, the covering for the top of these bedsteads with posts. While netting or knotting loops of yarn to make an open weave textile was not a new invention, its application to adorning bedsteads during the Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts periods was. These kinds of bed coverings were an important souce of output for many members of the Deerfield Industries (dates) group. Flynt notes that Emma henry (184301927) was instrumental in bringing the artform to Deerfield. Rachel Hawks (1887-1977) learned from Henry through observation, and began selling her netted testers in January 1927. Hawks developed at least six different patterns of tufted designs for her netted pieces, and like this example, she often labeled her work on opposite corners. As late as 1969, Hawks was still making these items.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2016.3 |
