The Georgian Bedstead ~ Part Two, Drawings and Design Factors

    The bed being fabricated in Canada, but destined for England, I had to plan carefully so that the various components would be small enough to be taken over as checked baggage on the airplane.  This is a tough constraint, but not insurmountable.  The bedposts would end up with a final height of about 86 inches (see drawings).  They would be made in sections which would be screwed together, and could be taken apart in future when required for moving.  In order to get the bed into use as soon as possible, I planned to make the lower post sections first,  take them over and source material for the bed rails and structural head and foot boards in the UK, since they would be too big to take on the flight. 
           Here are the first drawings. At this stage I  planned simple head and footboards, the same width and thickness as the side rails, so as to be able to bring the bed into use quickly. The design for a panelled decorative headboard is presently in early stages. We may leave the footboard as shown, the original having just such a simple arrangement.
          
The first challenge was to design a very strong, simple, foolproof connection between the bedpost sections.  I have built poster beds in the past, connecting the sections variously with hanger bolts or sections of threaded wood. Neither of these methods proved to be a perfect solution.  From a lifetime of experience Jim gave me his advice, which was to connect them with a long length of threaded steel rod, through a continuous hollow central core running the length of the post.  Right away, I had to modify this plan, because the posts would be connected with the rails and boards of the frame by means of bedbolts passing crosswise through the centre of the lower post sections. A longitudinal rod would block that.  So the rod fastening the lower post section could not be allowed to run down to the floor.  I solved that difficulty with a plan to embed collar nuts in the heart of the legs into which the rods would be screwed. The thrust would be borne by large washers abutting the collar nuts; (see drawing).

The Georgian Bedstead ~ Part One, Finding the Material

The original bed was made from mahogany and we wanted to use the same material, so the next thing I needed to do was find a supply of this. I am most fortunate to have a friend here in Niagara-on-the-Lake who is a cabinetmaker, historian and restoration specialist; a lover of architecture and old buildings. He has a large workshop on the edge of town and a great stock of all the materials relating to these interests. He has old Victorian window glass, antique hardware and fittings, you name it. Most importantly for me, as it turned out, he has a wide range of timber, accumulated over many years; some of it has been reclaimed from old structures and is decades old. When I explained my project he told me that he had some mahogany. I could take a look and see if it would be suitable. I went around and found the wood to be perfect for my purpose, and there was enough of it. Good and generous man that he is, he allowed me to buy it. Mostly, the wood was in planks two inches thick, by six or seven wide and eight or nine feet long. Jim has heavier, more powerful machines than I, so he helped me with the first cutting, in preparation for making the bedposts, which was to be the first task.

Building a Reproduction Georgian Bedstead ~ Introduction

In April of this year I decided, at my daughter’s request,to build for her a reproduction four-poster bed of Georgian design. We had seen the bed (photo above) at a country house in England: Hinton Ampner, owned by the National Trust and open to the public. I wish we had made a close study of this beautiful piece, and taken measurements too, but the decision to copy the bed was not made on the spot. However, we took a number of photographs in and around the house that day, and fortunately several of the bed. From these photos I was able to deduce the size and proportions fairly closely, and when I came home to Canada I drew detailed drawings as a prelude to the work.