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 turned wooden handle, tapered shaft, cast handle socket and flange, and brass pan and lid with a ring. The hinged lid is decorated with a center incised flower surrounded by three floral sprays alternating with four pierced holes in a diamond shape with bean-like shapes between the holes. 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+54.004.17 |
