Posted 5 years ago
Blueyecon
(24 items)
I have tried to learn what type of cabinet this is. From there I might be able to age it. The drawer inserts have a metal inlay with evenly spaced holes. The side of each very shallow drawer has what appears to have cut out for identifying labels. The top is glass over the top drawer for displaying what is in the top drawer. I thought the drawers would be interchangeable allowing different drawers to be inserted for pulling and changing drawers to display. However, they do not seem to easily fit in the top space. I purchased it from a private owner who could only tell me her father had this for a long time. Her father was a teacher.
Very nice cabinet!! Maps? Blueprints ? Photo paper??
Sheet music also? What did he teach?
I don't remember what she said he taught exactly. It's been a few years. I think she may have said science. I've had people say maps and blueprints only. I'm just not sure why the top has the glass see-through inlaid to the top drawer.
I would think that the glass is there for viewing a specific/sensitive page or document. That way the viewer would not be handling the paper. Maybe the topic of the day. Possibly a connection to an Archive or Library setting.
Most of these are commonly now identified as being a " collector cabinet " !~
I'm still puzzled by the metal inserts in the drawers. Something else must have hooked to them somehow, to keep drawer contents stable/secure/filed while opening them, or ??
Could it have held photographs/slides, or maybe if there's an actual "science" aspect to it examples of little critters/bugs/butterflies or something like that?? How deep are the drawers BTW (looks like they all must be less than 2" anyway?) which might help to shed a further clue abouts whatever used to be held by it...?
Just guessing, it is a beautiful as well as no DOUBT unusual piece of furniture anyways about it!
:-) :-) :-) :-)
It's wonderful...these kind of cabinets are sought after by artists for storing works on paper...especially the bigger plan/map drawers. This one is very elegant & does look like it would have been used for something scientific, maybe dried botanical or entomological specimens? The glass top is a nice touch, gives it a look of the sort of cabinets seen in museums.
This type of cabinet is usually called a flat file or a specimen file.
For stamps or coin collectors, or specimens of the sciences as artfoot mentions above.