Michelle Bullivant Local Historian & Landscape Archaeologist
  • Home
    • About
    • Historical & Archaeological Services
    • Reviews
  • Cambridgeshire History
  • Cherry Hinton History
  • UK History
  • Shop
    • Wanted
    • Site Policies
  • News & Updates
  • Contact

UK & County History

Virtual Museum. The Easilae - 1950s Vintage Bed Rest / Bed Chair.

5/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Easilae Bed Chair
My dear friend Sandra donated this interesting item. She got it some years ago in the 1990s from a charity shop in Cambridge. It looked to be from the 1940s or 50s and was an adjustable back rest - presumably made for sitting up in bed but it could also be used on a sofa or chair (we know, as we tested it and surprisingly comfortable it is too!). I have had this backrest for a while now and thought it was time to learn more about it. At first, we thought it could have been hand-made, but upon further inspection, there is a brand name and patent number on a small plate at the back base - we'll come to that in a minute.
The backrest is fully adjustable by the wooden frame on the back (it's a little like a deck chair in that regard). It can be folded down for easy storage when not in use.
Bed Chair
Bed Chair Frame
1950s Bed Chair
Bed Chair 1950s
1957 Bed Chair
Bed Rest Chair
On the left-hand side, there are two painted pink wooden knobs, which can be turned and set in place by the wooden pin, shown in the pictures below. These allow the position of the back frame to be set or adjusted.
Adjustable Bed Chair
Wooden Frame Bed Chair
Wooden Frame Back Rest
Pink Wooden Knob
The front is very padded and has two attached but movable flip-over cushions, which flip over from the back to the front as needed.
1950s Cushion
1950s Cushions
Vintage Cushions
Vintage Bed Rest
Vintage Back Rest
The material has a fine, strong, cotton feel and has a slight shine to it - almost like a silk blend. It is a pale pink hinted cream colour with a floral pattern.
1950s Floral
1950s Silk
On the back wooden brace, at the base of the bed chair, is this smart little product label. It states the "Easilae" brand name, the description of 'Bed Chair' and the Patent Applied for number.
Easilae Patent Label
So now we have a little more to go on and it is not a homemade item, it was   manufactured. So, to find out more I started with a simple Google search to see if I could discover more about the item, the brand and how many Easilae's still survived. As it turned out, there was nothing online that I could initially find. Including via image search, eBay checks, museum pieces, general Googling....you name it but nothing!
This was intriguing as it is not often that these general searches come up with no leads at all.
I then turned my attention to searching the various databases that I use as a historian, which include the National Archives, various museum archives and all sorts. Still nothing!
Then I decided to search through the various newspaper archives because I figured that if this was an item that was for sale during the 1950s there may be an advertisement for it somewhere.

As luck would have it, I managed to find the one and only reference to the Easilae throughout the newspaper archives that I searched. It was a singular advert placed in the high society magazine The Tatler, in 1957. 
Tatler Magazine Advert
The Tatler - Wednesday 20 November 1957
And there it is! Our Easilae!

There are several things that we can learn from this advert. Firstly, it dates our item to around 1957. 

By looking at the picture in the advert we can see that the item looks identical, apart from, the one in the advert that looks as though it has arms. The advert states "..and the arms, which are instantly detachable when not required."

Our Easilae does not have arms and when Sandra got it in the 1990's it didn't have arms with it. On the back of our one, there are leather loops on either side, which seem to have no function - see pictures below. These then must have been where the arms for the bed rest would have been attached originally. They would have probably been linked with a rod slotted through these two loops.
1950s Leather
1950s Design
The advert states that the Easilae would cost £15.7.6 - as a rough guide, from the bank of England inflation calculator on their website, £15 in 1957 would cost about £287.59 today. So, the Easilae was not a cheap item to own.
1950s Prices

We also learn from the advert that the vendor for the Easilae, in this instance, was John Bell & Croyden of 50 Wigmore Street, London. As we have so little else to go on it is worth having a look at this to see what we can find out.

A simple Google Street search of the address shows, that amazingly, the company, John Bell & Croyden, is still at the same address and still going strong! 
John Bell & Croyden
London Pharmacist
John Bell & Croyden started as a pharmacy in 1798 and moved to its current site on Wigmore Street, London in 1912.

Given the advert, they must have stocked this bedrest chair - I wonder if this is where our item was purchased from? Was it ever stocked anywhere else? Who owned it and how did it end up in Cambridge? As always, these little bits of research produce so many more questions as one goes along.

A visit to the John Bell & Croyden website gives a page about their history and can be visited here to read a little more:

https://johnbellcroyden.co.uk/blogs/about-us/our-history-through-the-ages
Given the singular advertisement for the Easilae found so far and the only connection I have for it being sold anywhere is at the John Bell & Croyden store, I imagine that perhaps it only had a short run of success. I wonder how many were even sold? The lack of any Easilae to be found online - either for sale on sites such as eBay or in museums, makes me wonder how many even survived and that we may have one of the only remaining ones!
Let's return to look at the label on the item for any remaining clues.

The label gives a patent applied for number: 25875/53
Patent Applied
A search for the Patent on Espacenet (the place to go for Patents from 1890 onwards), reveals that the applicant for the patent was Richard Cooke, a British Subject of 244 Felixstowe Road, Ipswich, Suffolk.

The patent gives the full details of the purpose, use and construction of the bed rest.
You can see a partial picture of the original patent below and if you would like to see the full patent, I have added the PDF of the document, below the picture, so that you can open that and have a read.
Patent Specification
gb804109a_original_document_20230303181250.pdf
File Size: 600 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Here is an original drawing from the patent of the Easilae bed chair.
Patent Drawing
Again, we can see from both the 1957 advert and this patent that the Easilae would have originally had detachable armrests which we do not have. They must have been lost over the years.

The applicant date for the patent was 18th Sept 1953. The date of filing the patent was 21st April 1955 the complete specification was published on 5th Nov 1958.

Our Easilae has the label stating 'patent applied' for, indicating that it dates from before the patent was granted - which was in Nov 1958. The advert for the Easilae above is Nov 1957, before the patent was granted, so any sold at this point would have the Pat. App. (Patent applied for) label. This firmly dates our Easilae to pre-Nov 1958.
The next thing to do is to see if we can find out anything else about the inventor of the Easilae. Nothing immediate was coming up for Richard Cooke on a general Google search.

Let's start by finding his house at 244 Felixstowe Road, Ipswich. 

Here is a Google street view of what was Richard Cooke's house from at least 1953-1958 (as stated in the patent).
Felixstowe Road Ipswich

I wonder if Richard was someone who generally invented things already, what his job was or if he had had to care for someone and this is how the Easilae came about?

I spent a good deal of time searching through all of my various archives and databases, I also turned to Ancestry and the many various other records sites but I could find nothing that firmly linked to Richard Cooke at this address nor anything else about him.

​I did find a record of probate for  Charlotte May Asbury of the same address, who had died in 1936. This would indicate that Richard Cooke would have been at this address after this date.
Asbury Family
So, Richard Cooke would have been at the address after 1936 and we know he was there in 1953, 1955 & 1958.
​
I searched for him through all sorts of records, including Companies House and trade mark searches too but still nothing! Most unusual, for me at any rate, not to find out more. 

The only other inventor named Richard Cooke that I found was a chap who had invented an automatic cut-off for gas burners in 1908 and who was a British subject living in the states. It is a tenuous link but the only possible slim clue.
​Here is the entry below:
RICHARD H. COOKE, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.
AUTOMATIC CUT-OFF FOR GAS-BURNERS.
No. 891,670.
Specification of Letters Patent. Patented June 23, 1908.
Application filed March 23, 1907. Serial No. 364,041.
To all w7tom it may concern:
Be it known that I, RICHARD H COOKE, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Automatic Cut-Offs for GasBurners, of which the following is a specification.
Although very unlikely to be our Richard Cooke, it does lend to the idea that the lack of any leads so far on our Richard could be because he had lived abroad either before or after his stay in Ipswich. I have checked many overseas records but to no avail at present. 
So, for now, at least, we will leave the Easilae research here and see what else may turn up in time. Perhaps you may be able to find out something more? Perhaps you were a relative of Richard Cooke or lived in the house in Ipswich at some point? You might have even seen an Easilae before or maybe still have one yourself.

Please do feel free to leave a comment below or get in touch using the 'Contact Me' form if you have any further information that can be added to this tale.

If you'd like to support the historical community work that I do you can donate by making a one-of donation at PayPal or via Buy Me a Coffee (it's like a tip jar). Just click on one of the choices below and I'd be very grateful :)


0 Comments



    CONTENTS
    For a list of the full contents of the Cambridgeshire History Page with clickable links - click on this button
    CONTENTS

    About & how to use:

    This is a blog page for the archives in my own collection. It includes many of my personal & family archives, tales and scrapbook items to all kinds of general archive items from UK History.

    Search for items or subjects of interest under the categories list below, by date or keyword, name or place etc or keyword search in the search box above. You can also search the contents list - see above.

    Any problems finding something or if you've any questions or comments please do get in touch by using the 'Contact' page on this website.

    These are my own thoughts and theories which are always a work in progress as research never ends, it's a place to put my working notes. If you would like to use or reference any of my work, please do get in touch and be sure to reference writing or pictures in the correct way, thanks in advance :) 

    All photos and articles remain the copyright of Michelle Bullivant unless stated otherwise. 

    If you would like to add your memories or comments to any of these posts, just like on the post in question and click on the add comment button - the comment will be sent to me for approval and then I can go ahead and add it to the individual post (or you can use the 'contact me' form in the menu at the top of the website bar)  - hope that helps :)

    You can donate, to help the historical community work that I do, by making a one-off donation at PayPal or via Buy Me a Coffee (it's like a tip jar). It will help support the voluntary community work that I do, creating interesting history and archaeology blogs, and carrying out original research, which is all posted here on my website under the history tabs above, for you to explore and enjoy. All of my history blogs are created for free community use. If you like what I do and would like to give me a little support, I'd be very grateful and it will help to keep me going, just click the PayPal Me or Buy Me A Coffee button below :) thanks





    Categories

    All
    104 Wing RAF
    1941
    1945
    1950s
    Ada Hatchman
    Aerial Photography
    Air Raid Shelter
    Airships
    All This And Heaven Too (Film)
    Archaeology
    Arthur Cruden
    Asbury Family
    Barker Family
    Bavister Family
    Beeston
    Berlin
    Binks Family
    Birmingham
    Blackpool WWII
    Bombing WWII
    Boots (Shop)
    Bowyer Family
    Bradburys Of London
    British Military
    Broom Family
    Brylcreem
    Buckfast
    Bullivant
    Bury St Edmunds
    Buttons
    Cadbury's
    Cambridge
    Cardington
    Charity Shops
    Charles Mews
    Charlotte May Asbury
    Charlotte Rose
    Churchmans
    Coat Of Arms
    Concentration Camps WWII
    Conservatives WWII
    Cooks Tour Firm
    Cox Family
    Cruden Family
    Devon WWII
    Dig For Victory
    Dorothy Garrod
    Duke Of Hamilton
    Easilae Bed Chair
    Easter WWII
    Ed Toller
    Edward VII
    Evacuation
    Fairburns Family Crests
    Family Crest
    Felixstowe Road
    Firmin House
    Firmin & Sons
    Fosbury Mews London
    French
    Fulham
    Fulham Football Club
    Gas Attack
    General Wavel
    George Cruden
    Germans WWII
    Germany WWII
    Government WWII
    Gravestones
    Graveyard
    Greece WWII
    Haby Department
    Harrow Road Nottingham
    Hatchman Family
    Hatfield WWII
    Hills Road Cambridge
    History Needs You
    Holy Week
    Home Front
    Houndsgate Nottingham
    Houses Of Parliament
    Huntingdon
    Hyde Park London
    Ickworth House
    Inverness Terrace
    Ipswich
    Iraq WWII
    Italy WWII
    Jerry
    Jesus Green Cambridge
    Joan Punter/Toller
    John Bell & Croyden
    Kedington
    Kenneth Graham
    Kettering
    Lafontes
    Lexicon
    Lillie Langtry
    Little Hampton WWII
    Liverpool
    Livery Buttons
    London
    London WWII
    Marie Cruden
    Mediterranean WWII
    Midland Bank
    Military
    Museum Of Oxford
    Navy
    Nominet
    North Africa WWII
    Northern Ireland WWII
    Nottingham
    Nottingham WWII
    Officers Convalescent
    Old Photographs
    One Whitehall London
    Oxford
    Oxford Road Cambridge
    Paignton
    Paratroops
    Paris WWII
    Patent
    Pharmacies
    Plymouth
    Prisoners Of War WWII
    RAF
    Rationing WWII
    Rewind Time
    Richard Cooke
    Rolls Royce
    Russ Broom
    Russell Street Cambridge
    Russians
    Salvation Army
    Scotland
    Searchlights
    Shell Mex House
    Ships WWII
    Smith Family
    Song Of Bernadette
    Suez WWII
    Suffolk
    Sullivans Travels
    Syria
    Theatres In London
    The Grand Royale London
    The New Theatre Cambridge
    The Ritz London
    The Tatler
    The Wind In The Willows
    Toller Family
    Vintage Adverts
    Virtual Museum
    Wallaton Park Nottingham
    Waller Road WWII
    Wallor Road
    War Letters WWII
    Wigmore Street
    Wilde Family
    Wilson Family
    Winston Churchill
    Wollaton Park
    Worthing Town Hall
    WWII

    Archives

    March 2023
    April 2022
    November 2021
    February 2021

  • Home
    • About
    • Historical & Archaeological Services
    • Reviews
  • Cambridgeshire History
  • Cherry Hinton History
  • UK History
  • Shop
    • Wanted
    • Site Policies
  • News & Updates
  • Contact