Trying to identify an antique cabinet

12 years ago

I've had no success figuring out anything about this cabinet -- where it came from, how old it is. I bought it in an antique shop in about 2002. It supposedly came from southern France, although it may not have originated there. Has anyone seen furniture like this before? It originally had a mirror on the large center door, but it was broken in a moving accident. It's about 7 feet tall, oak.

(wow, sorry about the size, not sure how to make it smaller).

Comments (7)

lindac
12 years ago
No picture in your post.
cl-gw
Original Author
12 years ago
Really? I can see it. Here's a link:

http://imgur.com/hlagU

Here is a link that might be useful: cabinet
Fori
12 years ago
I see it--hard not to teehee!

I don't know, but it's just too cool. You've got to get that mirror replaced.
kterlep
12 years ago
It looks to me to be Gothic Revival...if from a home it would be from about 1840. However, it could have been built for a church in the same style (GR churches/ecclesiastical furniture are still being built today).
cl-gw
Original Author
12 years ago
@fori -- I intend to. The mirror looked quite old and needed to be re-silvered, but I thought it looked interesting as it was. It broke my heart when it fell and shattered.

@kterlep -- I looked up Gothic Revival furniture styles, and I'm not sure if my cabinet/armoire is ornate enough? The carving is rather rough, but still nicely done, and you can see planes in it (the curves aren't quite perfectly smooth). The pointed arch screams Gothic, though.

The style of the hinges on the two outside doors were unfamiliar to me, not knowing about antiques. You lift the door straight up, and a hinge pin comes out of a solid cylinder. The outside doors are heavy, yet they open on one hinge. The hinges also seem rather roughly made. Would closeups of the hardware help identify at least how old it might be? I'm not sure how to identify the metal.

The piece comes apart entirely without tools, including the back panels. There are three odd pins that hold it together -- the pin is basically a large screw with a sphere on the top instead of a normal screw head. The sphere has a hole going completely through it, I guess if you wanted to stick something like an allen wrench in there to help tighten/loosen.
palimpsest
12 years ago
It may be from one of the later gothic revivals, during the 1920s-30s when they were building a lot of tudor, jacobethan and romantic revival houses. It looks like gothic-inspired art-deco to me.
Fori
12 years ago
Pins like this?

We use a giant finish nail to assemble this thing. On mine, they need to be snugged up pretty well, but it's certainly not like yours. And I don't know when or where mine was built.

Hardware and carving closeups would certainly be fun to see and maybe help someone (not me) date it.