Hanging Cradle

Date1790-1810

MediumYellow pine, iron, and paint

DimensionsOH: 28"; OW: 48 1/4": OD: 21 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Betty M. Dietz in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Wallace Moncure, Jr.

Object number1994.2000.1,1&2

DescriptionCradle formed from a dovetailed box with shaped tops on end boards and a bottomboard secured with wood pins and wrought nails. Wrought heart-spaced hangers mounted on end board with handmade screws. Trestle frame consists of two uprights having shaped tops mortised into shaped trestle feet. Two stretchers are through-tenoned into feet and secured with wedges; one upper stretcher is through-tenoned into uprights and secured with wedges. Base color is blue; sides of box painted with vertical parallel‚ lines painted black and separated by equal spaces of ground color; dovetails on box and molded edges of bottomboard painted white. Frame painted blue and shaped tops of upright elements, shaped tops of feet, top edge of upper medial stretcher and side ends of paired lower stretchers painted white.
Label TextThis may be the earliest American hanging cot known. A trestle base having stretchers secured by wedges anchors two upright posts having shaped tops from which the bed is suspended. The shaped tops of the bed end boards are a particularly ambitious and attractive feature of the cot.
Hanging cots were intended to lull a child to sleep more comfortably than cradles mounted on rockers which tended to toss an infant from side to side. The paint on the sides of the bed imitates the vertical elements and the spaces between them on a crib by alternating blue and black stripes. For economy, the paint on the insides of the bed extends only as far as the bedding that would have been placed in it.
ProvenancePurchased by donor in 1970s at auction in Manassas, Virginia.