A shallow two door low painted cabinet from Germany c.1825

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About the Item

An extremely shallow two door low cabinet with the original painted finish from Germany c.1825. The depth on this cabinet is remarkable for its shallowness and remains a superb piece for placement in a space where a deep cupboard is not feasible. The pair of cabinet doors open fully to reveal an interior storage space with two shelves that maximize the available area. The left door is secured by a pair of slide bolts located on the upper and lower section of the door on the inside and once these bolts are thrown the left door is immovable. The right door features the original lock accessed by the iron key that must fit through the escutcheon (the metal plate that guides the key through the timber to the lock inside). Again, once the lock is engaged and the key removed the door is unable to be opened. This secure arrangement is a reminder that in the day when many food types (sugar, tea, coffee, etc.) were valuable items everything was kept behind a locked door. This is why there is not a knob on the doors as expected on modern cabinets. The two doors are each rectangular and reach from top to bottom on the original iron hinges. Both doors are constructed to enclose a slightly recessed panel of the same rectangular shape and these panels are where the artist chose to apply the balanced and symmetrical painted decoration inspired by late eighteenth century neoclassical design. The fanciful scrolls form a pair of stylized open urns placed one atop the other and their open work pattern gives a sense of lightness and charm to the entire piece. The entire cabinet stands upon bracket feet that serve to elevate the piece and elongate the visual line in a manner that emphasizes the shallow profile. Please use the zoom feature to enlarge the photograph that shows the interesting pattern of the front legs with their raised decoration achieved by carved details placed at right angles. The original artisan of this piece was well aware of the impact a painted finish provided in a dimly lighted interior and used complementary colours of cream and yellow in an imaginative way. Both the left and right sides are finished in a solid colour with a rectangular band painted in a darker shade that outlines the join of the rectangular side panel while the top is also a lighter colour with the same rectangular band but rendered in a different colour way. As the top was used for serving there was no point to provide any elaborate decoration and as this cabinet was in a rural interior there was most probably not enough light cast by a fire in the hearth to justify elaborate decoration on the sides either. The shallow depth also indicates that this cabinet was originally made for a small interior. Although this was born of necessity in the early nineteenth century the shallow depth gives this cabinet s definite advantage now in the twenty-first century when furnishing in a tight space.

Dimensions:
Height: 37.5 in (95.25 cm)Width: 34 in (86.36 cm)Depth: 11.5 in (29.21 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Painted
Place of Origin:
Germany
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
c.1825
Condition:
Seller Location:
Houston, TX
Reference Number:
Seller: DO91stDibs: U1203198668651