An Interesting History Of Baby Cradles
The word cradle means beginnings, the earliest period of life, and cradle became a metaphor for the beginnings of civilization. This definition has great meaning for our families and the births of our children. We all have positive and constructive classical traditions that we pass along from one generation to another in the history of our families. This kind of family heritage contributes influences for the positive development of civilization. Baby cradles, with rocking motions, welcome babies into the world with beginnings to which babies were accustomed before birth.
Baby cradles have a history of development, improving baby cradles for rocking baby, as baby was rocked in utero by the walking mother. Arachnida, insecta and other arthropoda, annelida, chalminthes, platyhelminthes and chordata such as rodentia, at the very least, have a negative effect on baby health. Baby’s health and safety improved by getting baby away from “bugs”, for example, through significant changes in cradles and cradle bedding. Babies were under such attack until the appearance of the cast iron bed and cotton bedding during the late Eighteenth century in America and possibly England, as well as some other countries in Europe.
Approximately ten thousand years ago in the neolithic period, people began sleeping on primitive beds that were piles of earth scratched together. At some point in time, the most common baby cradles became logs that were cut in half and hollowed out. Hollowed half log baby cradles could be suspended from a tree branch enabling the wind to rock the cradle and baby to sleep. Rock-A-Bye-Baby lyrics address this tradition and are a warning regarding the choice of bough. Eventually, hollowed were placed on stands and designed to rock to and fro, so mother could more easily lift baby. Contemporary logs and logging are remindful of the need for reforestation of the forests including all of the rain forests on planet earth. Reforested rain forests have an enormous effect on stabilizing and maintaining cool ocean temperatures. Our babies, our families, need this future. During the time logs were being used as cradles, baskets were developed and basket weaving techniques were spread throughout the world through migrations.
Baskets have been used as baby cradles for a very long time. Baskets and basket making developed at various times in different places on planet earth. There’s the story of baby Moses, whose life was saved in another country, when he was placed in a basket and floated on a river where the current hugged the shoreline. In 1421, during a great flood in the Netherlands, a cat was placed in a basket baby cradle with a baby. According to legend, the cat stablilized the basket baby cradle, and the baby lived. In Europe, 1465 a basket cradle had two rockers attached to the base. Later, basket baby cradles had sumptuous bedding of silk and velvet, hand embroidered with silk.
Around 3,400 BCE (Before the Christian Era), Egyptian pharohs discovered the benefits of raising a pallet off the earth. King Tutankahmen had a bed of ebony and gold. A portable baby cradle, or sling, can be seen in Egyptian art work dating to the time of the pharohs.
During the Roman Empire, the first luxury bed appeared in Europe. These wooden beds were often decorated with gold, silver or bronze. Luxury bed mattresses were stuffed with reeds, hay, wool or feathers. Sumptuous fabrics covered the mattresses. Romans discovered the water bed during the Roman Empire. The sleeper would recline in a cradle of warm water until drowsy. The sleeper would then be lifted onto an adjacent cradle with mattress, where the sleeper would be rocked to sleep.
In the 1300s, an Italian hand carved wooden Swan Baby Cradle was created. We have two old world European antique reproductions of the fourteenth century “Imperial Swan” baby cradle with included Italian silk bedding ensembles. The tall swan shelters your baby as her own in hand carved wings. The swan looks back protectively over your little one, holding a wreath of tulle veiling. This antique old world reproduction wooden Imperial Swan cherry finish baby cradle has hand carved feathers that create the basket and are on the tall swan neck. A one hundred percent Italian silk dupioni bedding ensemble is included. The “gold leafed” Imperial Swan baby cradle has been beautifully customized in the great Italian craftsmen’s tradition of the fourteenth century. Hand carved textured feathering is emphasized by the “gold leafing”. A one hundred percent Italian silk dupioni bedding ensemble is included. What a fabulous family heritage one of these cradles can create for a new baby and the family.
Renaissance mattresses were pea shucks, straw or sometimes feathers stuffed into coarse ticking, then covered with sumptuous velvets, brocades and silks. Pea shucks cause us to think of the fables of the Princess And The Pea and The Prince And The Pea. The Princess And The Pea felt a dried pea through the layers of mattresses while visiting the Prince And The Pea at his castle. He fell in love with this very perceptive Princess. The Princess fell in love, and she married the Prince.
During the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe and England, mattresses were stuffed with straw or down placed atop a lattice of rope. It is interesting to know that the ancient Greeks invented the lattice work of rope for beds elevated above the floor. The expression “sleep tight” comes from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when mattresses were placed on top of ropes that needed regular tightening. Some eighteenth and nineteenth century American beds also had latticework roping for these beds needing regular tightening.
The cast iron bed and the cotton mattress arrived in the late 18th century. Together, these provided sleeping space that was less attractive to “bugs”. Until that time, assorted vermin were simply an elemental aspect of sleeping in all beds, including baby cradles. There was no air conditioning, and wood was susceptible to attack by vermin. Teak and red oak are among the few woods that do not attract “bugs”. These woods were not easily available. Usually, local woods were used for beds, including baby cradles. Mattresses were stuffed with items that also attracted “bugs”. Baby cradles and baby bedding became healthier and safer at the time that the cast iron bed and the cotton mattress arrived, in the late eighteenth century.
Berthe Morrisot, French Impressionist painter and wife of the brother of Manet the French Impressionist painter, painted a beautiful painting of a baby in an oval baby cradle in 1872. The painting depicts a baby in a wrought iron baby cradle with a cradle arm holding organza to shelter the baby from flying insects. Wrought iron cradles are said to have baskets for cradling baby. This wording carries forward the woven basket tradition into the nineteenth century and also contemporary baby cradles. We sell lovely traditional wrought iron baby cradles and baby cradle bedding similar to that in world renowned Impressionist artist Berthe Morrisot’s nineteenth century painting. If you would like to see Berthe Morrisot’s nineteenth century painting, there century are reproductions in fine art books, and the original is located in the Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France.
Traditionally, the baby cradle has been so important, during its long history and evolution, for the first months of baby’s life, is the reason that the soothing rocking function continues the rocking felt by baby in utero as the mother walked and moved about. Baby is eased into the world with the continuation of a rocking motion. Baby cradles are useful from birth through approximately three to four months. Baby cradles are no longer safe when baby can roll over. Rocking the baby continues to be so very important through those first months of baby’s life until baby can begin moving around. A great family tradition can be established and continued with one of these historic baby cradles.