Description:
Many warming pans for beds were made by braziers throughout northern Europe, England, and America during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. They were not necessarily a familiar bedroom implement, however, as recorded in the journal of the Scot John Harrower when he travelled to London in 1774. On January 12 he took a room at a tavern near Portsmouth, he wrote in hisjournal that following supper, he "paid 3d for my bed, and it was warmed with a warming pan, this being the first time I ever seed it done." Warming pan or bedwarmer with a brass pan, which descended in the Williams family of Deerfield. The hinged lid (ring mising) is decorated with engraved and molded floral designs and piercing, including a center stylized petal surrounded by stylized hammered leaves; surrounded by a band of three groups of decorated circular shapes alternating with diamond-shaped holes; all surrounded by two incised lines. The outer edge of the lid has three repeating groups consisting of a large scrolling floral spray, similar stylized petal shape as in the center, and seven round holes alternating with decorated circular shapes with a feathered design on top. The turned wooden handle has a tapered shaft and a cast handle socket and flange; copper rivets are used on the cast handle socket and flange to connect the lid and pan to the handle shaft. Perhaps the most famous association with a bed pan with the birth of King James II's son, James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), called the "Old Pretender." Rumors circulated that James Stuart was smuggled into the birth chamber in a warming pan and was not the true heir to the throne. This claim would follow him through his whole life and he was nicknamed “the old pretender”.
Subjects:
Copper; Brass Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+60.286 |
