Bed Warmers and Hot Bricks

Before electric blankets, hot water bottles and central heating for our homes, generations before used more primitive means of warming the bed and chasing away the cold and damp. A bed warmer was a shallow, round, copper or brass bowl with a tightly fitting lid, on a long wooden handle. The maid (usually) would fill it with hot coals (or ashes) and move it up and down between the sheets. Hot bricks, often made from ceramic, were used for the same purpose. They were too hot to handle and were wrapped in cloth or placed in a fabric bag.

Chamber Pots

Before the flush toilet was common, what did people do? They used chamber pots, made of ceramic and kept under the bed. Hostesses often set up rooms as 'retiring rooms' when entertaining.

Flat Irons

Flat irons (smoothing irons for clothes) were made from solid iron. They were heavy, weighing more than 5lbs and were heated on a fire or stove. Also known as 'sad irons', the word 'sad' being derived from old English meaning 'solid'.

Boot Scrapers

These devices for cleaning footwear could be found outside building entrances. In days when urban streets were dirtier than they are today, these were common and essential tools to prevent muck being trodden into a house. Routinely made of iron or sandstone, many were decorative and consisted of some kind of bar with a sharp edge, often embedded in a stone and low in the ground.

Old Craftsman Tools

We're so used to power tools these days that we often forget that in the past they had to do everything with muscle power, whether beast of burden or man or woman. Hand drills, braces and augurs, hand wood planing and carving tools have become rare or specialist items, or used in some parts of the world. Many seem quaint to modern eyes, though they were essential tools in their day.