Corner Cupboard

Date1745-1755

OriginAmerica, Virginia, James River Basin

MediumAll components of yellow pine.

DimensionsOH:96 1/2";OW:47 1/2";OD:19 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1934-17

DescriptionAppearance: single unit cupboard with angled side stiles and half round back; upper section open, with complex break arch at top and three deeply shaped shelves; lower section closed with two single-panel, originally non-lockable doors and one shelf; applied molding enframes upper and lower openings; cornice applied to front assembly and angled side stiles and mitered to side moldings that extend to the floor; no base molding or feet.

Construction: The cupboard is a single unit. The front consists of top, waist, and bottom rails that are tenoned into front right and left stiles and fastened with nails. This assembly and a pair of flanking angled side stiles are nailed to the shelves, top board, and bottom board. Nine full-height, rough-sawn backboards are set edge-to-edge and nailed to the curved rear edges of the shelves and the top and bottom boards. The cornice and the full-height side moldings are nailed to the front assembly and the side stiles. The moldings framing the upper and lower openings are face-nailed. The doors, which feature pinned through-tenons, are hung on iron butterfly hinges.
Label TextDuring the eighteenth century, the construction of corner cupboards was often the purview of carpenters who made closely related goods like house doors and window sashes. The corner cupboard's triangular or half-round format did not lend itself to the dovetailed joinery practiced by cabinetmakers. Cutting dovetails on three sides of a triangular board or along the curving face of a half-round one places many of the pins across the short grain of the wood where they are likely to fail. It is more practical to build such cupboards by nailing the vertical elements directly to the edges of the top and bottom boards and the shelves. Composed of heavy mortised-and-tenoned frames, the facades of most corner cupboards are also more akin to the work of carpenters than that of cabinetmakers.

The carpenter who built this cupboard originally attached it directly to the house in which it stood. Oxidized square holes in the outer edges of its cornice and side moldings confirm that it was nailed in place. Another cupboard made by the same artisan demonstrates that he followed the lead of contemporaries, making both built-in architectural cupboards and freestanding versions with feet and plain, unmolded sides (see CWF accession 1930-123).

A large percentage of corner cupboards made after the mid-eighteenth century exhibit flat rear faces set at right angles to one another. Many earlier models, including this one, have a half-round back consisting of vertical edge-joined boards. Rounding the back of a cupboard reduced the amount of storage space within, but also eliminated the recessed, relatively dark rear corner. The plan may have been designed so that ceramic and glass wares could be displayed to better advantage.

The shaped and molded baroque arch, deeply scalloped shelves, and absence of doors on the upper section of this cupboard imply that for its first owner, display was of greater consideration than storage or security. The same is true of some half-round buffets built into several late colonial Virginia houses, where surprisingly shallow, curved shelving is often no more than a few inches deep. They could have been used for nothing except display. Examples include the corner cupboard in the parlor of William Byrd III's circa 1770 Williamsburg town house and the pair of flat wall buffets in the best room at Gunston Hall plantation in Fairfax County, circa 1755.

The attribution of this cupboard to the lower James River basin is based on the discovery of several similar cupboards there. Both this example and accession 1930-123 were purchased from an antiques dealer in Suffolk, Virginia, in the early 1930s. A third, privately owned example made by the same artisan but with the addition of glazed doors was found in adjacent northeastern North Carolina early in this century. A similar circa 1770 yellow pine cupboard from another shop was removed from a house in James City County, near Williamsburg, in the 1910s, and a fifth example lacking the arched top rail was retrieved from Surry County in the 1960s. The facade format of all of them was inspired directly by British models, both built-in and freestanding.

InscribedNone
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceThe cupboard was purchased in 1934 from antiques dealer C. P. Holland of Suffolk, Va. No earlier history is known.