Teester beds

[RobertP]

Every one has seen teester beds in photos, tours or in person. They were common in Deep South homes primarily because mosquito netting could be draped from the canopies to protect from the nighttime insects. Mosquitoes were always the threat and yellow fever epidemics devastating.

I still maintain my parents home out in the country. It is not very large or impressive house but they build it with high ceilings so it would accommodate two teesters in the bedrooms and the pics are below.

The first was my parents' bed, a four poster or full teester:

The second is a half teester, having only 2 posts, it belonged to the younger sister of my great-grandmother.

The half teester has a matching mirrored armoire which created the bedroom set.

 

[donna]

Beautiful furniture. I know they are very precious to you. Thanks for posting.

 

[diane]

That's very intriguing! I used to house keep for Pop Steele who had a cherry wood teester. He was in his 90s in the 60s and said it had originally come all the way from England and he had been born in it and planned to die in it like his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather before him! That's five generations, isn't it? Beautiful item - he had the armoir and a matching large chest that stayed at the foot of the bed. He told about hanging curtains around it for exactly the same reason you mentioned - his family was from New York but they lived near a lake full of summertime bugs! Pop outlived his sons and daughters, and their kids as well, and I sure would like to know what happened to that. Hope it's still in his family.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Such beautiful craftsmanship on those teester beds and armoir! They don't make furniture anywhere near as lovely today. Or as sturdy to last for generations either! I have a beautiful early 1950's bedroom set from my grandparents. It's so well made and the drawers are so nice and deep, great for sweaters!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Missed this earlier and thank you so much for these! ' Teester ' is brand new as a term. They're just immaculate, too. I saw one of the smaller beds once, I know now, in Virginia. The top had been removed somewhere along the line, the rest is exactly the same. You know it's Southern- for all the old beds we have no one thought about mosquitos. Oh we had them, no idea why sleeping with them was just fine!

Hate to be a buttinski, RobertP but guessing the veritable museum may have other unique pieces. ? I'm still repeating the Red River quilt story as one of the coolest Civil War ancestor pieces ever.

 

[RobertP]

Hi Annie. Remember also that the furniture was made big to accommodate the very high ceilings in southern houses. Just as old northern homes, like those of England, had low ceilings to keep heat in, southern ones had the tall ceilings to keep it away.

My grandmother's house was built by her father in 1870 and I spent a lot of time there as a kid. The rooms were like 18' cubes with transoms over the doors connecting them. When the windows were open in the summers it was very comfortable inside without any a/c. Now that place really WAS like a time capsule.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Hi Annie. Remember also that the furniture was made big to accommodate the very high ceilings in southern houses. Just as old northern homes, like those of England, had low ceilings to keep heat in, southern ones had the tall ceilings to keep it away.

My grandmother's house was built by her father in 1870 and I spent a lot of time there as a kid. The rooms were like 18' cubes with transoms over the doors connecting them. When the windows were open in the summers it was very comfortable inside without any a/c. Now that place really WAS like a time capsule.

You know, my mother and I talk about this a lot, the old builders v new. She lived in Arkansas as a child. The summer traditions we never see, like cotton covers for the furniture and taking up the rugs were secondary to how homes were built. The old architects must have been geniuses, truly! Those summers were no joke but as you say, the cool interior in the middle of that? Mom remembers coming home from school in the middle of blazing heat to a cool house and how lovely that was.

I really do not mean to sound so negative but it does seem insane today, the way homes are built, South and North. We've come to use the huge, 2 story entranceways, where heat and coolness are a big problem. Ceilings elsewhere are so low, no air circulates at all. The old Victorian we grew up in had the window above each door which functioned with the old steam radiators? Ceilings not as high as in the South though. It did not occur to me these were SO high- gee whiz!

Thanks very much for another look inside another century. It's always delightful- the fact it is one family's every day life makes these more unique.

 

[Allie]

Missed this earlier and thank you so much for these! ' Teester ' is brand new as a term. They're just immaculate, too. I saw one of the smaller beds once, I know now, in Virginia. The top had been removed somewhere along the line, the rest is exactly the same. You know it's Southern- for all the old beds we have no one thought about mosquitos. Oh we had them, no idea why sleeping with them was just fine!

Hate to be a buttinski, RobertP but guessing the veritable museum may have other unique pieces. ? I'm still repeating the Red River quilt story as one of the coolest Civil War ancestor pieces ever.

You may have seen the term spelled "tester." I did some looking things up in various dictionaries, and apparently opinion is divided between "tester" and "teester" as to pronunciation, but tester is the correct spelling. I haven't been able to find "teester" as a spelling in any dictionary, although furniture companies are fond of it. If anyone can find a source for "teester" please correct me.

 

[RobertP]

You may have seen the term spelled "tester." I did some looking things up in various dictionaries, and apparently opinion is divided between "tester" and "teester" as to pronunciation, but tester is the correct spelling. I haven't been able to find "teester" as a spelling in any dictionary, although furniture companies are fond of it. If anyone can find a source for "teester" please correct me.

You are correct in the spelling. My mistake, the name has always been pronounced "teester" in my experience so I spelled it that way.

 

[diane]

You are correct in the spelling. My mistake, the name has always been pronounced "teester" in my experience so I spelled it that way.

Didn't seem wrong to me, either! That's what Pop said it was.

 

[donna]

However you spell it, they are beautiful beds.

I have my parents bedroom suite. It includes bed, (tester or teester), woman's bureau, men's bureau and 2 nightstands. It is my pride and joy. I have two Victorian lamps on nightstands and a Victorian rocker in the room.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Rats! I was getting ready to use a great newly discovered Southern term and be smug about it. Guessing it has a lot to do with accents?

If I were Southern, would stick with teester. It just, plain sounds like it's old and you had great grandparents who slept in one ( whatever mysterious object it might be ). Tester? Sounds like something you'd buy for 49.99 ( plus shipping and handling ) at somewhere called The Mattress King, on a Boulevard, in a strip mall in Pennsylvania because it was a floor model.

But heck, if I were Southern, I'd invent a story a second for us, just for fun, ( I don't mean this, it's lovely seeing these old treasures )- I'll listen all day long just for the accent, then go buy a bed.