Slipseat

Dateca. 1810

Terms

Beds
Cane
Rattan
Wood
China

Dimensions31.73 × 182.74 × 85.03 cm (12 1/2 × 71 15/16 × 33 1/2 in.)

Credit LineSlipseat from a Chinese export sofa bed of about 1810, modified by Henry Thoreau in 1845, China. Concord Museum Collection, gift of Cummings E. Davis or George Tolman; Th2.

Object numberTh2

DescriptionBedstead or cot. Tropical hardwood, rattan, maple, basswood. Caned frame consists of four 1 1/4 in. x 3 in. rails through-tenoned and wedged at the corners, the joint further reinforced with a single wooden pin. A groove is cut on the underside of the rails for the caning. Three 3/16 in. holes in one end rail contain broken-off pegs. The 1 in. x 12 1/4 in. legs taper from 3 3/4 in. to 2 3/4 in. and are rabbeted at the top and screwed to the sides 3 in. from the ends. One 1/2 in. x 2 in. stretcher remains. The frame is covered in a brown paint. Like desk Th10, this bedstead is a relic of Henry D. Thoreau's two-year stay at Walden Pond. It is further distinguished both by an exotic origin and by the probability that it was made, in part at least, by Thoreau himself. Thoreau's bed is an interesting make-do built around a caned slip seat. The caned panel probably came from a sofa-bed like the example in the Rhode Island Historical Society. The histories of surviving examples indicate that this sort of caned furniture, made in the Orient for export, was owned and used by those engaged directly in the trade. Concord had one direct importer of Chinese goods in the early nineteenth century, Caleb Bates (d. 1821), whose inventory included imported furniture like a

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