Cupboard

“ It's always been my idea as a cupboard was a place to shut things up in out of sight, and here if he hasn't gone and put glass doors on the one in the corner of the dining room, so as every one can see just what's meant to be hid. ”

“ Does it chance that there be a reader of this chapter who possesses a cupboard, partly open in front, with small balustrades in the door between which the contents of the cupboard can be seen? If he or she has, ten to one but it has been converted into a receptacle for china, or glass, and then china and glass are not only imperfectly exhibited, but become rapidly covered with dust. The possessor of such a little cabinet or cupboard owns something now become very rare, the significance of which is understood by a few only.
A CHEST OF DRAWERS (1652)
Let me describe one in my possession. ”

“ In [pg 129] the middle ages cupboards or dressers were mere covered boards or shelves against a wall on which plate was set out, and were made of three or four or more stages according to the splendour of the occasion. The cupboard dresser of more modest pretensions was considered as a piece of dining-room furniture. ”

“ It is a cupboard, forming the upper part of a five-sided structure, which has a base projecting equally with the top, which itself hangs over a hollow between the cupboard and the base, and is finished off with pendants below the cupboard. The panel which forms the door of the cupboard is wider than the sides. ”

“ Cupboards abound in colonial inventories, under various names—“small cupboard,” “great cupboard,” “press cupboard,” “wainscot cupboard,” “court cupboard,” “livery cupboard,” “hanging cupboard,” “sideboard cupboard.” The cupboard formed an important part of the furniture owned by men of wealth and position in the colonies.
These cupboards were generally of oak, but those made in this country have the backs and bottoms of the cupboards and drawers of pine. The interior is similar in all, the lower cupboard usually having shelves, which seldom appear in the upper cupboard. ”

“ PLATE I. Bottom—Court Cupboard—Oak. (Virginia—c. 1640) . This old court cupboard has much about it which speaks for itself. It is of no moment to give space to a study of the type for the benefit of the average collector, as little chance stands out before him for such as it is. Such cupboards as are known, are rarely offered for sale, and those that are known are very few. This cupboard, originally from Yorktown, has an interesting history. ”

“ A white-wood corner cupboard, with a fluted sliding-door, which, if you go about to open it quietly, refuses to move, whereas if you use force you push the whole cupboard 204from its place. Only long experience, added to unwearying patience, will enable any one to bring to light the glasses, plates, and knives, or whatever the contents of the receptacle may be. ”

“ These little livery cupboards usually stood on another, from which they were detached, and which was the "court-cupboard." In this the inmate of the room kept his valuables.
Now let me bid my readers keep a sharp eye on the furniture of cottages when they visit them, for these livery cupboards may still be occasionally found in them, and then they go by the name of "bread and cheese cupboards." I remember many years ago picking up one in a labourer's cottage, that was used for cheese, and it did not lose this smell for a long time afterwards. ”

“ The earlier specimens of the “court cupboard” are generally (and often richly) carved. Sometimes the pillars have Ionic capitals, sometimes they are ornamented with the swelling bulb or acorn enriched with the acanthus leaf, as exhibited in No. 2, Plate X. The devices for the mouldings and panels open to the carver were innumerable. Towards the close of our period, cupboards were decorated with applied ornaments of ebony (or an imitation of it) in the form of eggs, spindles and lozenges, as shown in the cabinet No. 1 on Plate X.
The cabinet is a development of the enclosed cupboard. ”

“ A livery cupboard had not this signification. It was the cupboard in which was kept that portion of food and of wine or ale delivered over to each person in the household by the lady of the house for night consumption. Anciently—in the days of Good [77] Queen Bess and of James I.—there was no meal between supper at 7 p.m. ”

“ Even this curious find was not all I discovered, nor the most important, although at the time I made my second discovery I did not attach any value to it. It was this. When I came to the third side of the room, opposite the door, I came upon a sort of niche or cupboard, close up to the ceiling, which had no door, but simply a piece of lace tacked over the aperture, and then thickly papered over some seven or eight times. [Pg 122] The opening was about ten inches high, eight inches wide, by six inches deep, and in it stood two leathern drinking cups, capable of containing about a pint each. ”

“ In the kitchen there was a small cupboard, called the key cupboard, in which they kept keys of all sizes belonging to the establishment. They were hung on hooks, each one being marked with the name of the place to which it belonged. It was easy for me to find the key to the cellar, and having obtained it, I opened another cupboard filled with bottles and vials, where I selected one that held half a pint, placed it in a large pitcher, and hastened down stairs. I soon found a cask marked "brandy," turned the faucet, and filled the bottle. ”

“ There was a corner cupboard full of crockery, and two spinning-wheels, and a spindle-legged table set out with a blue-and-white tea-set and some cups and saucers, and finally a carved sideboard which made two or three clumsy attempts to get through the doorway broadside on, and then took a fresh start, and came through endwise with a great flourish. ”

“ The other furniture in the room, being of the same sort as that in the majority of old-fashioned hostels, needs no description; but a fixture in the shape of a cupboard, a deep, dark cupboard, let into the wall facing the bed, instantly attracted Mrs. Murphy's attention. There is always something interesting in cupboards, particularly old and roomy cupboards, when it is night-time and one is about to get into bed. It is then that they suggest all manner of fascinating possibilities. ”

“ A table and a chair were the only furniture; in one corner stood the grandfather’s bed, in another was the hearth with a large kettle hanging above it; and on the further side was a large door in the wall—this was the cupboard. The grandfather opened it; inside were his clothes, some hanging up, others, a couple of shirts, and some socks and handkerchiefs, lying on a shelf; on a second shelf were some plates and cups and glasses, and on a higher one still, a round loaf, smoked meat, and cheese, for everything that Alm-Uncle needed for his food and clothing was kept in this cupboard. ”

“ An old cupboard, vis-à-vis with the stove, is scoured, and well stocked with provisions and cooking utensils, and a sufficiency of homely table and other furniture is placed at his disposal; and Peter literally groans under "an embarrassment of riches." ”

“ As soon as her training reaches this point, she should be confined in a cupboard, some seven feet long by three and a half broad. The cupboard, which should first be thoroughly swept and cleaned, must be kept to such a pitch of darkness, that it will be impossible for its occupant to distinguish the day from the night. ”

“ COURT CUPBOARD, CARVED OAK.
ENGLISH. DATED 1603.
Decorated with narrow bands inlaid, and having inlaid tulip between drawers.
(Victoria and Albert Museum.)
In contrast with this specimen, the elaborately carved Court cupboard of a slightly earlier period{73} should be examined. It bears carving on every available surface. It has been "restored," and restored pieces have an unpleasant fashion of suggesting that sundry improvements have been carried out in the process. At any rate, as it stands it is over-laboured, and entirely lacking in reticence. ”

“ The spring was just a little rusty, but it gave presently, disclosing a shallow cupboard containing a few articles of simple jewellery, together with a mass of faded letters and a crabbed old parchment inscribed with quaint characters, which proved to be nothing else but the missing deed. ”

“ She tiptoed before a corner cupboard filled with antiques.
“Ach, yes,” her aunt answered, “mebbe it looks funny, ain’t, to have a glass cupboard in the parlor, but I had no other room for it, the house is so little. If I didn’t think so much of them dishes I’d sold them a’ready. ”

“ If I’m left alone and not worried, I’ll probably end by believing that he really did sleep there.”
“What about cupboards?” suggested Dick. “The Little Mother will clamour for cupboards.”
It is unexplainable, the average woman’s passion for cupboards. In heaven, her first request, I am sure, is always, “Can I have a cupboard?” She would keep her husband and children in cupboards if she had her way: that would be her idea of the perfect home, everybody wrapped up with a piece of camphor in his or her own proper cupboard. I knew a woman once who was happy—for a woman. ”

“ The older solid-fronted pieces are fixed to the wall half-way up, but those of the somewhat more modern type, in which there is much glass, usually have a wooden base with glazed superstructure. Most corner cupboards are attractive in form and treatment, and many of them, inlaid with satinwood, ebony, holly or box, are extremely elegant. ”

“ Southern makers have not neglected their opportunities for refinement of the piece. The cupboard has received various designations, and it has been possible here to present a wide variety of types.
The earliest cupboard found in the South is the court cupboard. The word "court" coming from the French word meaning short, is accepted as referring to the carved-oak cupboard of the early seventeenth century. There are in America less than twenty cupboards of this type known. ”

“ That broad board was as much a part of the family possessions as its silverware, its cameo pins and other heirlooms. I remember an occasion, when most of the members of the family were absent, the eldest boy and myself carefully took the board from the cupboard, and, with the assistance of two barrels, constructed a rude counter, across which we dispensed vinegar soda water, grapevine-leaf cigars and apples of suspicious character. ”

“ The dresser, or the cupboard, was the greatest display article of furniture in the hall of the houses of the higher orders of society, who invested large amounts of money in vessels of the precious metals and of crystal, which were sometimes set with precious stones and were always of the most beautiful patterns and of odd and elaborate forms. ”

“ A long rounding drawer extends across the centre and projects beyond the cupboard below it, while a slide pulls out, forming a shelf, between the long drawer and the small cupboard. There are no bottle drawers in this sideboard. The doors are inlaid with a fan at each corner, and fine lines of holly are inlaid around the legs, doors, and drawer. The silver pieces upon the sideboard top are family heirlooms. The large tea-caddies at each end are of pewter finely engraved. This sideboard is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. ”

“ A table, long enough to seat ten people at a pinch, runs athwartships, and ranged round it are various straight-backed chairs.
On the after bulkhead is a square mahogany cupboard with a railed top, on which reposes a gramophone, while to the right, in the corner, is another cupboard reaching to the deck above and divided into numerous square lockers. It is really intended for stationery, but provides an equally useful receptacle for bottled beer and stout. ”

“ Depth from front to back, 2 feet 41⁄2 inches.
Height, 4 feet 8 inches.
Height of cupboard from slab to pendants, 2 feet 6 inches.
Height of base, 91⁄2 inches.
Width of side panels, 1 foot 8 inches; of centre panel, 1 foot 101⁄2 inches.
Width of the door of the cupboard, 1 foot 5 inches.
The door has carved upon it a scene representing two men, one an old man sitting upon a chair, the other a young one falling back from a stool; a table separates them and in the next compartment (for an arcade runs through the group) a female figure clasps her hands, as if in astonishment. ”

“ A Roman reading a roll in front of a press (armarium) . From a photograph of a sarcophagus in the garden of the Villa Balestra. Rome.
[39]
In the central portion, 21 in. high, by 151⁄2 in. wide, is a seated figure, reading a roll. In front of him is a cupboard, the doors of which are open. It is fitted with two shelves, on the uppermost of which are eight rolls, the ends of which are turned to the spectator. On the next shelf is something which looks like a dish or shallow cup. The lower part of the press is solid. Perhaps a second cupboard is intended. ”

“ There was a little white chest of drawers in the room, and a big cupboard built into the wall, so that she had plenty of room for her belongings. Her little frocks, though she had quite a lot of them, took up a very small space indeed, but two of her sun-hats [73] covered one shelf of the cupboard, and she had to take another shelf for her best one and her red and blue bérets. ”

“ Opposite this chest of drawers, on the lady's side of the room, is a cupboard. The presence of a row of gentleman's boots beside the chest of drawers proclaims that the lady is married. Her own boots are beside the cupboard. ”

“ Nearly every old house has its secret cupboard—usually in the wall. Very often one may be found behind the panelling, and near the fire. In my own house is one cut in granite, the stone on all sides, and is the depth of my arm. I have little doubt that these warm, dry cupboards, so secured that no mouse can make its way in, were for the preservation of deeds. Others were for jewellery and plate. The custom of having secret cupboards was continued after cupboards had become independent articles of furniture, standing out in the room ”

“ This is the key, and yonder, if I do not mistake, is the cupboard."
They had already quaffed a dozen toasts. Perhaps this was why they accepted this proposition in a sort of panting silence, which remained unbroken while the lawyer crossed the floor, unlocked the cupboard and brought out before them a bottle which he held up before their eyes with a simulated glee almost saturnine.
"Isn't that a bottle to make your eyes dance? The very cobwebs on it are eloquent. [Pg 53] And see! look at this label. Tokay, friends, real Tokay! ”