THESE days, with central heating, the electric blanket and the hot water bottle, a warm bed is rather taken for granted.

Yet it was a very different story a couple of centuries ago, when in Georgian and Victorian Britain, beds had to be warmed in the depths of winter in houses which lacked any form of heating, apart from perhaps a coal fire.

One of the answers to this problem was the warming-pan, a brass or copper container about 12 inches in diameter, normally made with a long wooden handle and with a hinged lid.

At bedtime, the owner of the warming-pan, or more probably their servant, would fill the container with hot embers from the fire, and then using the long handled device, move it between the bed-sheets to provide instant warmth.

The warming pan was very popular in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, but by the Victorian period of the late 1830s, more practical answers to the cold bed were being found, mainly in the shape of metal or earthenware hot water bottles.

Even so, the use of the warming-pan persisted right through until the early 20th century, and there are many examples still around today, which though not used for decades for their original purpose, provide a very nice wall decoration in country cottages.

Most examples will date from the late 18th and early 19th century, though there were many reproductions and you do have to be careful about authenticity.

The original examples will normally show a lot of signs of wear.

Although the basic design of a circular shape with a long handle was fairly standard, some had decorative or even pierced or embossed lids, and this embellishment can add to the value. Copper examples are on the whole more common than brass, though values are very similar.

Early examples, perhaps dating from the late 1700s, can fetch £1,000 or more among purist collectors, but the vast majority you see around the antique shops, fairs and auctions are more likely to be 19th century examples and values are much more affordable, normally ranging from about £75 to £200 depending on attractiveness of design.

There was a fashion for reproduction pans starting in the 1930s, and some of these are of miniature scale too, made mostly for wall decoration with no serious thought being given to them actually being used to warm a bed.

Up until the 1970s warming pans were quite popular as many people were restoring cottages in traditional style, but today's market is much more geared towards restoring homes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and so the warming pan doesn't really fit into that design and decorative scheme.

Values have therefore stood still for a little while, but if you do like a rustic look to your house or certainly if you have a rural cottage, then the old warming-pan is a very nice period touch.