Food safe

Dateca. 1750

MediumYellow pinel, linen, iron

DimensionsOH: 60 1/4"; OW: (top) 30 1/2", (base at stretchers): 27 1/2"; OD: (top) 29 ", (base at stretchers) 27 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Mr. Frank Dickinson.

Object number1981-171

DescriptionAppearance: Flat rectangular top with molded lower edge overhangs upper rails of safe; sides of linen attached to rails and stiles; horizontal boards nailed to rabbet in back of rear stiles; front consists of a rectangular door frame with a linen panel hinged with iron butterfly hinges to proper left stile; wooden knob on proper right stile turns to secure door; scalloped lower skirt on front and sides; front, rear, and side stretchers, rectangular in cross section; straight legs, square in cross section, with chamfered corners above and below stretchers; interior has two shelves resting on side supports nailed into rabbets in the front and rear stiles.
Label TextFood safes, the ancestors of the nineteenth-century punched tin pie safe, came in a variety of shapes and degrees of finish. They were intended as pest-free storage units for food stuffs. Some, like this one, were intended to keep away nothing more tenacious than flying insects, but Robert Beverley of Essex County, Virginia probably had rodents in mind when he ordered "as much [iron] wife as will make a Safe, for the Preservation of Meat" in 1775. Virginians kept safes in a variety of domestic work and storage areas. In 1750, planter Leroy Griffen of Richmond County had "In the Dary...one oak safe," while in 1772 James Mitchell, keeper of the Swan Tavern in Yorktown, owned "2 large pine Safes" which he kept in "the Celler". Locally, Peyton and Betty Randolph owned a safe valued at L1.10 that appears to have been in their kitchen.

This particular safe was probably made on the Eastern Shore of Virginia during that last quarter of the eighteenth century.
ProvenanceThe safe was found by the donor on the Eastern Shore.