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The most important piece of furniture
for centuries in many cultures was purposes. Of course they
were the place to sleep but they were also a place where meals
were taken and where you entertained.
One of the earliest descriptions of a bed was that it was a
low chest and served as storage for bedding as well as a pace
to slumber. It seems one of the earlier attempts to make a bed
more comfortable and softer than sleeping on the floor of a
wooden chest, consisted of stretching ropes across a wooden
structure.
Around the 1600's, mattresses made of a "bag"
that was filled with some kind of soft material was added to
the wooden structures described above. Typically straw was used
as the filling for the mattress. Another mattress approach was
to use wool and to cover it in cheap cloth.
Sometime during the 18th century, people of means, began using
mattresses covered with high quality linen or cotton. The mattress
was placed in a cane box that had sides or borders - a bed.
These mattresses had a variety of fillings such as coconut fibre,
cotton, wool and horsehair. About this same time, mattress makers
started tufting or buttoning mattresses to keep the fibre together.
They also began stitching the sides of the mattress.
In the late 19th century beds began to be made of iron and steel.
In 1929, a company called, Dunlopillow, marketed latex rubber
mattresses which were the most expensive beds one could buy.
www.classicbedsteads.co.uk
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