A Short History of Beds
Added Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 3:14 am | View Comments
Here at bedstar.co.uk, not only do we offer you great deals when buying bargain beds online, but we also like to share our expert advice on getting a great night’s sleep. Since beds are our business, we’ve got together some little known facts about the origins of contemporary beds and a few special cases.
For much of history the bed was considered the most important piece of furniture people owned. The earliest beds were somewhat like shallow wooden cots in which softer bedding was placed and in ancient civilisations the bed was not just for sleeping. Often people lay upon beds whilst eating and the Romans had several beds each with a different purpose including eating, studying and the even special funeral beds.
In Homer’s play Odyssey a lavish bed that Odysseus made is well described. He cut and smoothed an olive tree and drilled holes to thread crimson ox hide through. These formed a supple web to lie on and the surrounding wood was inlayed with gold, silver and ivory.
The 16th Century Great Bed of Ware has literary fame, having appeared in Shakespeare and Byron’s works. It is an 11 by 10 foot giant four poster bed which, according to Hertfordshire rumour, was commissioned by an innkeeper looking to attract more business. The bed is currently on display in London’s Victoria and Albert museum.
Although nowadays beds are mainly a place to sleep, they still come in all shapes, styles and sizes some of which have caught on better than others. The waterbed has never been a huge success story, but was used in Persia over 3,600 years ago and since its introduction to England in 1873 there are plenty of people who have bought and enjoyed them. A waterbed was designed by Neil Arnott to help stop bedsores in hospitals and after the invention of vinyl became a practical and available luxury bed.
The Murphy bed is another innovation which seems to have had its heyday. These are beds which fold up into a cupboard, billed as allowing any room to become a bedroom. Murphy beds were invented in 1900 but are now mostly seen in hotels to provide a second double bed or incorporated into elaborate bedroom furniture designs.
Check out our latest prices for some of the best bed discounts on the internet. We offer a massive product range of modern and traditional beds in our catalogue to help you get the best night’s sleep possible. As well as loads of bargain beds online, we have superb deals on discounted mattresses, kid’s beds and much more.
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