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 pierced, chased, and repoussed ornamentation on the lid with Adam and Eve in a circle in the center and an outer band with a variety of animals (deer, boars, fox?). Warming pans with this combination of decoration are typical of work done in the Netherslands; English warmers were usually only chased and pierced. Warming pans filled with hot coals drove moisture and cold away from bedsheets. The round container has a flip top lid, and is attached to the handle by means of four rivets (two of which look replaced). The long iron handle is ornamented with a brass finial with brass ring and brass fittings at the center and end of the handle. 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”.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1998.12 |
