A William and Mary Period Oak Spice Cupboard with Fitted Interior of Pigeonholes and Drawers, English, circa 1690

A charming small oak cupboard from the William and Mary period, made in the closing years of the seventeenth century, designed to hang on a wall or stand on a dresser or table. Its door opens to reveal a fitted interior of unusual completeness. Two tiers of pigeonholes rise above four small oak drawers with turned brass knob pulls. The upper tier is finished beneath the cornice with a shaped frieze of little cusped arches, a touch of decorative care that the maker need not have taken and evidently could not resist.

The exterior shows country joinery at a moment of fashion change. The cornice is boldly moulded and projects well forward. A matching base moulding, rounded at its returns, gives the piece a satisfying architectural frame. The door is pegged and framed around a well-proportioned fielded panel of lively figured oak, its bevelled margins catching the light. Around 1690 the raised and fielded panel was a newly fashionable alternative to the flat, scratch-moulded panels of the earlier Stuart joiner. The door still hangs on its hand-forged iron butterfly hinges, nailed through in the old manner and entirely characteristic of the period. It is secured by a lock with its key, and a shaped brass escutcheon ending in fleur-de-lis finials sits on the front.

Cupboards of this kind were the locked strongholds of the late seventeenth-century household. Spices, tea, sugar and medicines were costly commodities, kept under the mistress’s or housekeeper’s key. Tea in particular was still a novel and expensive luxury in the 1690s. The arrangement of pigeonholes here also suggests papers, receipts and correspondence, the small business of a farm, estate office or parsonage. Today such a cupboard is as useful as it ever was, at home hung in a kitchen or study or set on a dresser base or side table. The surface has the warm, rich colour of old oak waxed and handled for more than three centuries.

Provenance: England. Late 17th century.

Material: Oak, with oak drawers (pine-lined), hand-forged iron hinges, and brass escutcheon.

Condition: Sound and in good working order, with a warm, rich patina. The lock functions and has a key.

• Top: a dark stain, knots, old surface wear, and splits and losses along the rear edge. There are small chips to the front edge of the cornice moulding.
• Back: two oak boards fixed with old nails, with a shrinkage gap between them, old worm along one board edge (apparently inactive), old fixing holes and traces of old white paint, consistent with long life on a wall.
• Fittings: the lock appears to be a later replacement, and the escutcheon may also be later; the key is present. One drawer shows an earlier fixing hole beside its knob, indicating a replaced pull. There are two old holes in the inside of the door’s lower rail, which are former fixings.
• General: wear commensurate with age and use.

Dimensions: 19¼ in high x 17¼ in wide x 9 in deep (49 cm x 44 cm x 23 cm)