Field bedstead

Date1780-1800

MediumBlack walnut, yellow pine, and iron.

DimensionsOH: 100 1/2"; OW: 58 5/8"; OD: 78 1/2"

Credit LineGift funds from The Chipstone Foundation, Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Ritter, Mr. Patrick Boothe, Mr. William Goode Beville

Object number1998-2,1

DescriptionField bedstead with four posts, square in section with the inner corner chamfered from below joint with rail; above the rail, posts taper towards top and have a bead along the outer corners; iron pins extends upwards from tops of posts; ogee shaped pieces of the side canopy frame sit on the iron pins and meet above the center of the side of the bed in an arch held by iron hinges; the straight end pieces of the canopy frame extend between the headposts and footposts, and a third piece extends between the two center points (tops of the arches) of the side canopy frame; these straight peices are notched to receive the ends of the shaped canopy frame; six turned flattened ball and spire shaped finials sit atop iron pins on each post and center points of the arched canopy frame; headboard is straight along bottom and top edges, top edge is rounded at corners; outer rails are square in cross section; side outer rails have notches along inner top edge for fourteen wooden slats; the inner frame is composed of head and foot inner rails tenoned into the outer side rails, inner side rails that are tenoned into the inner head and foot rails, and a center rail from the head to the foot. The inner frame is bolted to the foot, side, and head rails.

Materials: The outer rails, headboard, finials, posts, and canopy frame are walnut. The inner bed frame rails and slats are yellow pine.
Label TextCurvilinear tester frames were primarily used with field beds. The ends of these frames rested on the tops of the bedposts along the right and left sides of the bed. Thin strips of wood spanned the width of the bed from side to side, joining the tester frames to form a light framework, which supported a throwover or set of bed curtains. The throwover was attached to a tester cloth that was laid atop the frame like a tablecloth, which eliminated the need for nailing curtains directly to the bedstead.
ProvenanceDescended in either Brodnax or Wilkins family of Brodnax, Virginia (Brunswick County).

The bed was owned in 20th century at the Woodlands in Brodnax, Brunswick County, Virginia by members of the Randolph/Lewis/Bolling families. The Woodlands came into the the family around 1931 when Henry Stuart Lewis and his wife Sue Gordon Dabney Bolling Lewis (1891-1980) acquired it from Nellie D. Brodnax. Prior to 1931, the house had been owned in the Brodnax and Wilkins families. William Edward Brodnax III (1755-1830) purchased the property, but did not reside there, and left it to his daughter Ann Brodnax who married John Limbry Wilkins (1801-1843), son of William Wyche Wilkins (1768-1840) and Elizabeth Judkins Raines Wilkins (1776-1811). Ann left it to her nephew, Alexander John Brodnax (1830-1885), grandson of William Edward Brodnax III. At Alexander's death it passed to his daughter Nellie D. Brodnax (1857-1931).