Nightcap and Baby Bodice

One of the main reasons for old four poster beds, with their side curtains and overhead canopy, was to keep the falling debris from the roof from falling on your face while asleep. Many of the very old houses and cottages did not have plastered ceilings and the roof rested on beams and trusses with not much protection from the outside weather - birds and rodents were able to run about up there and send showers of straw, leaves and rubbish down on the sleepers and the peasants protected their heads with night caps - I have had dozens of these from country dealers (in demand for 'bonnet and lace' films) and very often, like this one,(D), they have the neatest little initials worked on them - they can be pulled out in two ways so you always have a clean tassel available. The tiny bodice is of course for a baby and what it was supposed to cure, prevent or correct I do not know, let's hope it was just to keep a tiny body warm and to button to something called a pilch (a sort of bag to hold the nappies in). Costume people please correct me. Either are collectable and are probably early 20c. but already obsolete and not likely to re-appear in our wardrobes. See also No peeps for Tom post. All articles shown are now sold.