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dando_gw

Is this a 'Hoosier Cabinet'? (pic)

Dando
12 years ago

Finally, I got it! Cost me a pie safe and two wicker rockers, but, I got it.

Now, is it classified as a "hoosier style cabinet"? Or just an old cupboard? Or something else?

Comments (19)

  • brickeyee
    12 years ago

    The desk?

    No.

  • Dando
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    A desk with a flour tin? Or a desk with some sort of tin rolldown bin...that's not for flour?
    Just simply a desk huh?
    Oh well, I still like it. :)

  • schoolhouse_gw
    12 years ago

    Maybe it's a hybrid - old cupboard made into a desk? Nice tho, lots of functionality and storage!

  • breezygirl
    12 years ago

    This is a Hoosier cab.

    My father has an antique oak one nearly identical to this.

  • Dando
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I now see the desk part. (has one of the kitchen table chairs stuck under it).
    But, no drawers in the desk part. (rather odd for a desk).
    Doesn't have a sifter style flour bin.
    DOES have some sort of rounded bottom, tin bin that sort of rolls open. Not sure what it was intended to hold?

    Maybe something out of a store?
    I see all sorts of cabinets labelled "hoosier and sellers". Named after the companies that made them. Although, other companies made similar and their ended up generically labelled "hoosier and/or sellers".

    Seems to be lots of variations.
    Just thought this might be one of the variations or similar?
    BUT, I do see now. Nothing "hoosier" is open in the middle for a chair to slide under. And nothing "hoosier" has a bin like this.

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    12 years ago

    I found this by google-ing 'baking table'--it was called a Hoosier baking table, but the website
    wasn't available (timed out). I think you have two separate 'married' pieces, but it looks very functional.

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    12 years ago

    This was a search on Hoosier baking table:

  • formerlyflorantha
    12 years ago

    mamagoose, that cab would qualify for the DAT steampunk thread I think!

    Dando, I congratulate you and wonder what kind of kitchen you're designing, given your obvious appreciation for the cooks of the past. Would you do me a favor and describe the underside of the drawers--how do the bottoms attach to the rest of the drawer frame--are they narrowed at the edges to fit into a groove or uniformly flat and nailed on? Are any corners dovetailed? Are there any factory grease pencil markings on the back sides anywhere? Any labels? And does it look like the knobs are the originals for the piece?

    All of these pieces are really cuties--they are extremely functional and have more space than the usual "Hoosier" I see so often. Dando's has those great ingredients drawers at top, which brings together many items that would otherwise sit in canisters. The lower area could be outfitted with roll-outs if you were wiling to lay hands on an antique. The rolling pin goes into a right-hand drawer I've decided. The top has sufficient open shelving to really allow some serious stashing of stuff. There is no metal surface on the flat area, is there? Was there ever a pull-out enamel or tinned work surface that has gone missing? If not, then there may have been a second board or a removable piece of oilcloth or something like that to roll out dough on. Is the surface beat up?

    Imagine the Extension Service movie that could have been made when this kind of piece of kitchen equipment was first introduced to the modern world! It would rival the 1930s one we've seen recently.

  • agmss15
    12 years ago

    I can't see the bin on yours - but hoosiers do have metal bins/dispensers for flour etc... A family friend had one when I was 5 or so that we used to make waffles and other child skill level baking projects. I think of that enamelled steel slide out work surface as being particularly 'hoosier'. Yours looks beautiful and useful too.

  • Dando
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I tried to get to the bottom of this last night.
    BTW: Mama Goose photo shows the ONLY other one I've seen with the same kind of "pull down tin bin".
    Anyway, I didn't figure out any more than you all have already told me.
    Baking Table, YES.
    Hoosier, NO.
    Two different pieces? Good Possibility. However, I do know those two have been together for at least 70yrs.
    ALL of the "doors" appear to be made the same way. Not sure about the drawer slides.
    Upper door hinges are the same odd "shape" as the lowers, but, they don't look exactly alike, and, lowers are larger.
    All the little porcelain looking knobs look alike, but, if you took them off, lined them up on a table? I doubt any two would be "exactly" identical.
    I'll know more about markings, etc...when I move it. Hopefull this weekend.

    Upper and Lower "married" back in a time when this was not an antique, or worth anythig more than what it was designed for? Again, good possibility because I was told....
    "poor folks had poor ways" and you used what you had to make what you needed.

    I saw an U-G-L-Y pie safe on ebay. Just like the one I traded for this baking cabinet. $4,000.00 (people are nuts, this was ONE plain jane flat out ugly pie safe...just like mine).
    I sure like this cabinet better than that pie safe that stayed hidden in the back of a walk-in closet. Now, where am I going to store the blankets? LOL!!

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    12 years ago

    I saw an U-G-L-Y pie safe on ebay. Just like the one I traded for this baking cabinet. $4,000.00 (people are nuts, this was ONE plain jane flat out ugly pie safe...just like mine). ---

    Pie safes are like babies--I've never seen one that I couldn't love. :)

    I have an old Hoosier-style with a wooden 'possum belly' drawer--I believe what you are calling a pull down tin bin--on one side, regular drawer in the middle, and a flour sifter on the other side. My cabinet is in rough shape, and banished to the mudroom, where it's still useful for storage.

    If the wood species, and all the hardware and joints are the same on your pieces, then it may be original, unlike the second pic that I posted--obviously two different kinds of wood. Does it have the iron side clips to join the two pieces?

    At any rate, it's a great piece!

  • Dando
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    No Iron side slide "thingy" pieces. Best I can tell, that's a dead give-away that the word "hoosier" shouldn't be used to describe it.

    florantha, I feel I'm not "designing" much of anything. Espeicially since I'm not starting from scratch.
    I've done some serious thinking, and have come to the conclusion that I have no "style", I have no "theme", I have no "taste" for anything in particular.
    And, that just drives me nuts!

    Something old, Something new, Something borrowed, NOTHING blue.

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    12 years ago

    I've never heard anything about side clamps. I found one cabinet (Wilson?) with long, horizontal side clamps, but they aren't like the clamps on my cabinet. The clamps are more like thick iron handles, screwed onto each piece, so maybe they are a later addition. I suspect it wasn't a 'high end' example, even when new. Searching for pics of cabinets with clamps, I found other manufacturers of similar cabinets--Sellers, Wilson, Boone, and McDougall.

    Thank you, Dando, this is an educational topic. I've never seen another cabinet exactly like mine, so if I may, here's a pic, in case anyone recognizes the maker:

    The glass pieces are replacements, there are remnants of green paint, and if ever there was an identifying tag, it was long gone before I rec'd the cabinet.

  • Dando
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I LIKE THAT. :)

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    12 years ago

    Me, too, but if anyone wants to give me $4000 for it, it'll be on a truck tomorrow. ;)

  • Shades_of_idaho
    12 years ago

    This is our Hoosier after the mirror addition. LOL

    There are metal brackets on either side to hold the three pieces of mine together. The top and bottom come apart and these brackets hold them together and the enamel top slides in and out of these brackets between top and bottom pieces. Like old drawer slides. With out them the enamel top will not slide.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Before mirror on top doors.

  • desertsteph
    12 years ago

    mama g- I like your cab - I also like the floor under it - what's the flooring?

    shades - I like your cab too. i'd love to have either. I had a wooden Hoosier back in the midwest but had to leave it behind when I moved west. I think I gave it back to the friend who sold it to me.

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    12 years ago

    shades, I love your hoosier bling!

    desertsteph, thank you. The mudroom floor is slate, laid on a concrete slab that wasn't leveled before the former back porch was enclosed (hence the chock under one side of the cabinet).

  • Shades_of_idaho
    12 years ago

    Thanks Steph and Mama_Goose. Forgot to say the metal flour bin is the bottom drawer.This is a really inexpensive version of hoosier. It was stripped when I bought it but it is made to be painted and the stripped wood was not very pretty at all. It is not an oak piece.

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