Making the Bed at Rouse Hill Estate

While Rouse Hill Estate is temporarily closed to visitors, we are busy behind the scenes inspecting, cleaning and caring for the collection. Recently, we removed the covers on the principal bed so that we could clean the frame below. This was also a good opportunity to peel back the bedding layer by layer and inspect the covers for dust and pests.

In contrast to Elizabeth Farm, where the main bed is a high quality replica with reproduction bedding to match, the bed and bedding at Rouse Hill are original. The four post bed dates to the 1820s , making it one of the oldest pieces of furniture in the house. The bed hanging dates from the late nineteenth century. The bed covers are more recent, and include a yellow and white acrylic wool bed cover. This layering of objects from different periods is typical of the collection kept in the house.

The removal and reinstatement of the bedcovers is a delicate operation. Each layer is carefully removed and laid flat, taking care around the fragile bed hangings. The bed frame is cleaned by directing dust into the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner with a soft paint brush. And the bed covers are gently lifted back into place once the cleaning has been done.

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Dr Carlin de Montfort

Dr Carlin de Montfort

Curator

Carlin de Montfort has worked with convict sites, house museums and the tens of thousands of objects in their collections. With a background in Australian social and cultural history, Carlin enjoys finding new connections between people places objects and history.

A Gothic Angel

In the drawing room at Rouse Hill your eye is instantly drawn to a small painting on the far wall; a figure of an angel in a shining gilt frame, acquired in the 1870s.

Keeping cool

Shading the face, fanning a fire into a blaze or cooling food, shooing away insects, conveying social status, even passing discreet romantic messages - the use of the fan goes far beyond the creation of a breeze.

Rolled piece of music on wooden scroll.
WW1

The Allies in camp music roll

Rouse Hill house boasts a fine pianola, a player piano, which came into the house just a few years before the outbreak of World War I

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Baubles, brooches & beads

We wear jewellery as articles of dress and fashion and for sentimental reasons – as tokens of love, as symbols of mourning, as souvenirs of travel