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The warming pan, a forerunner of the rubber hot water bottle, was filled with hot embers and inserted between the bed clothes to warm a bed, and was removed before the bed was occupied. This is a copper warming pan with a long wooden handle. Nothing is known of its origins.

1 bedwarmer: metal (copper); good condition

MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'The warming pan was filled with hot embers and inserted between the bedclothes, it was removed before the bed was occupied. The pan which was usually copper was fitted with a long wooden handle so that the pan could be manipulated more easily. // This warming pan is copper. It has a hinged lid on which there is a concentric tooled design. The bowl of the pan shows the grooves formed by a lathe, both inside and out. // The wooden handle is 2 feet 11.5 inches. It is fitted into a short copper handle which is rivetted onto the pan itself. The pan is 11.25 inches in diameter.', No Lavinia Smith No. recorded.

Rippon, Miss Dorothy May Lyddon (Agent)