Images(4)

High Post Bed

Period1800 - 1820

MediumTiger maple and maple

Dimensions90.25 × 55.75 × 79.3 in. (229.2 × 141.6 × 201.4 cm)

InscribedA label pasted on the reverse of the headboard reads "Curly Maple Hipost Bed. / From Mary Holmes Taylor Orchard Home. / Bed in which she died 1930 / Purchased from estate executor of / estate." The label is in the handwriting of H. Gregory Gulick, the purchaser of the bed.

ClassificationsBeds and Cradles

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry G. Gulick, 2017

Object number2017.2.17

DescriptionThe bedstead consists of four elaborately turned posts with a square section where the rails connect to them, four rectangular rails, a shaped headboard with four tenons into the two headposts, and an original tester frame held in place with an iron pin at the top of each post. The rails originally had turned buttons on their top surface for lacing the rope to support the feather mattresses. They have been cut off and were replaced by holes drilled in the rails to accommodate the rope. The rails are secured to the posts with long iron bolts countersunk into the posts. A stamped brass escutcheon plate covers them.
NotesThis exceptional bedstead, probably made in Middletown, Monmouth County, could have descended in either the family of Joseph Dorset Taylor (1802 - 1880) or his wife and first cousin Mary Holmes Taylor (1814 - 1897) to their daughter Mary Holmes Taylor (1850 - 1930). Miss Taylor passed away in this bed at her residence called Orchard Home in Middletown village. Located at 127 Kings Highway, the grand house built in 1853 is now known as the Taylor-Butler House. It is owned by the Association and is open to the public. As per the will of Miss Taylor, all of Orchard Home's contents, including its inherited Taylor heirlooms, were sold at auction on 20 August 1931. An auction advertisement in the Red Bank Register listed a "curly maple four-poster bed." The sale attracted a large crowd of about 500 persons, and bidding was spirited. A review of the sale mentioned that it "was one of the largest of its kind held in Monmouth county in recent years and it was notable for the great quantity of antique furniture disposed of. . ." The bedstead was purchased at the sale by H. Gregory Gulick, whose mother was a Taylor family cousin. For a more extended discussion of Miss Mary Holmes Taylor and the auction, see accession number 20. A photograph taken on 23 July 1894 by Edward Taylor (1848 - 1911) shows his mother, Mary Holmes Taylor II (1814 - 1897), seated in a rocking chair in front of the bed in one of the second floor chambers of Orchard Home.

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