Gothic Folk Art Cupboard

http://www.garths.com/WebPhotos/1_4_08_Catalog/Jan_Friday_08.pdf  ....scroll down to page 34

Pretty cool cupboard.  I'm a big fan of folk art and hope to nab some pieces over time.  The interesting thing about this piece is that it appears to be missing the bottom half - it's only 38" tall.  That may be due to the fact that the maker was a wagon maker and maybe this would have resided in one?

rare, i dont know, i was taken aback by size of cupboard as well, to big to be a hanging cupboard? which were popular in period colonial furniture. i really dont know victorian stuff that well but cant remember ever seeing a hanging cupboard from that era.

i was actually looking at pilgrim furniture when i came across this striking piece. check out that pilgrim court/press cupboard which is really an important piece of americana. with an auction estimate of 20-40k, i'll be shocked if it goes for anything less than 200k. last month at skinner's, they had a weathervane of a roadster with an auction estimate of 30-50k. hammer price with buyers premium?.....1 million US dollars....http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=009&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=190167250737&rd=1

That $1mm blows me away.  Makes me want to drive through the country and look for those things on the barns and building and buy them up.

Quote from: jacon4
rare, i dont know, i was taken aback by size of cupboard as well, to big to be a hanging cupboard? which were popular in period colonial furniture. i really dont know victorian stuff that well but cant remember ever seeing a hanging cupboard from that era.

Hanging cabinets and shelves were common in the last quarter of the 19th century, in the Aesthetic, Anglo-Japanese and Reform Gothic styles... in fact, I don't believe I have ever seen one in any of the earlier popular "Victorian" styles (i.e., the Gothic, Rococco and Renaissance Revivals).

With apologies for the (mostly) poor quality images, some examples from our collection:

Cabinet 1, a slightly smaller (~36") and more conventional hanging cabinet than the folk art cabinet/desk under discussion;
Cabinet 2, a bit smaller still, at 32"

Cabinet 3 is English, 27" wide x 24" high, with painted decoration in the style of Moyr-Smith (2 images).

Shelf 2 is a hanging display cabinet with shelves (almost a miniature ?tag?re), Shelf 3 is a shelf with mirror - an example of portable "knock-down" furniture from Great Britain, this piece has removable threaded finials and is hinged to fold flat.

Finally, Shelf 1 is a tiny folk art fretwork cabinet, a cruder and simpler cousin of the finely executed Garths's auction example.

Some good photographs of late 19th century hanging cabinets can be found in the Kimbel and Cabus catalog (http://tinyurl.com/2qq7e2) located at the Cooper-Hewitt library.

misslily, neat, i see your pics fine. so you think garths cab is a hanging cupboard and the bottom isnt missing?

BTW, cabinet #3 is just gorgeous

Quote from: jacon4
so you think garths cab is a hanging cupboard and the bottom isnt missing?

Yes.

Love your cabinets.  I've been looking for one for the kitchen to house some of the overflow from my spice cabinet, but I want a nice one in a light wood color. 

Thanks for the K&C link!!!  That is one I haven't run across and it inspires me to start a new message board - good reference links!!

What leads me to believe that the cabinet in the auction isn't a hanging design is the bottom - it's tapered outward, whereas all the hanging designs tend to taper in or at least stay at the same depth as the rest of the cabinet.

Thanks again.

rare, i've sent an inquiry to garths about this lot. as soon as they reply, i'll post it. odd how i came upon this cupboard but now i am interested in what the deal is. i'll say this, if it is a hanging cupboard, you better have something pretty substantial to hang it from as it looks heavy.

garth's responded this morning. misslily is correct, it is a hanging cupboard.

well, this cupboard barely made its low estimate (est.2-4k) and sold for $2300 yesterday....http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=28211&item=230206535617