Images(8)

Corner cupboard

Date1815-1830

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Rowan County

MediumBlack walnut, tulip poplar, yellow pine, maple, wallpaper, and glass.

DimensionsOH: 97"; OW: 52"; OD: 22"

Object number2001-805

DescriptionAppearance:
A tall single-unit corner cupboard with canted corners supported on bracket feet incorporating an ogee skirt ornamented with a scored inlaid maple square below a pair of doors each framing two arched panels and an inlaid tulip, surmounted by a tier of three drawers with original wooden pulls highlighted with maple cockbeading and inlaid escutcheons and flanked by inset maple panels, all below a pair of rectangular glazed doors with eight panes each mounted to the carcass with concealed butt hinges and revealing an interior lined with early 19th-century wallpaper, all beneath a heavy flat cornice molding supported at each end by a bracket extending from the backboard below. Wallpaper has wide cream and blue (aqua) vertical stripes; the wider cream stripes have white lace pattern along the edges of the blue stripes and a grey stripey banding down the center with alternating large and small floral and foliate sprays on the banding every 10" or so; a yellow line divides the white and blue stripes; the blue stripes are patterned with a centered yellow and white stylized flower spaced between the cream stripe floral sprays with three offset columns of white snowflake type motifs between and beside the yellow and white flowers.

Construction:
The three vertical back boards (on each side) are tongue and groove joined to each other and to rear corner posts that are in turn nailed to the mitered edges of the center backboard. All are yellow pine and extend to the floor with the exception of the center board of the three side boards which is sawn off 2” below the case bottom. The outermost and innermost of the side boards are angled to meet the shorter center board. The boards are nailed from the back to the edges of the top, bottom, upper case bottom, drawer support shelf and fixed shelves of the case. All of these are yellow pine (with the possible exception of the two middle shelves which are hidden due to wall paper). The front-most back board on each side is angle cut above the top to provide brackets which support the cornice. The three piece cornice consists of a horizontal flat mitered top board with molded outer edge nailed from above to the top edges of the side panels, stiles and top rail; it is butt joined on the underside to a mitered vertical board with molded bottom edge that in turn is nailed to the top rail, stiles and canted corner boards; the third board is mitered on the edges, carved on the face and nailed to angle between the underside of the top board and to the face of the vertical board.

The black walnut canted corner boards are grooved on the back to receive a tongue on the inside edge of the outermost back boards and are miter joined to the case stiles. These and the stiles extend from the top to the floor and are nailed to the top, bottom and shelves of the case. The upper front rail is probably tenoned into the stiles as are the belt rail (above the drawers), the drawer blade and the bottom rail. Additionally, the upper front rail is nailed to the top, the belt rail is nailed to the bottom shelf of the upper cupboard, the drawer blade is nailed to the drawer supporting shelf and the bottom rail is nailed to the bottom.

Drawer dividers are tenoned into the drawer blade and the belt rail. The rectangular windows formed on each side by the dividers, drawer blade, belt rail and case stiles are dodoed on the inside to hold maple panels which have been chamfered on the edge of the back. Vertical maple half-rounds are face nailed at the center of the dividers, stiles and corner boards between mid-moldings that are nailed to the belt rail and drawer blade above and below the drawers. Drawer guides nailed to the drawer support shelf are butt joined to the dividers and side backboards; canted rectangular drawer stops for the center drawer are glued to the support shelf on the inside edge of the guides. The bracket feet consist of walnut panels face nailed to the corner posts and miter joined to a front ogee skirt that is nailed to the stiles and to the bottom rail. A scored maple square is inlaid in the center of the skirt. The mitered base molding above the feet is nailed to the corner posts, stiles and bottom rail.

The interior of the upper case is covered with period wallpaper. Plate supports on the lower middle shelf are early, there are remnants of the same on the upper middle shelf and evidence of now missing supports on the upper shelf. Rails of the glazed doors are through tenoned and double-pegged to the stiles. Muntins are tenoned to the rails, stiles and each other. Interior door stiles on both upper and lower case doors are rabbeted so that PL (proper left) door overlaps PR (proper right) door. Maple cockbeading is nailed to the inside edges of the case stiles for the upper and lower case doors, and top molding. Butt hinges are inset in the cockbeading and surface mounted on the doors. Thus the hinges are virtually flush with the cockbeading. Walnut door knobs are possibly original. Original brass bolt locks are inset and screwed to the inside upper edge of the lower PR door as well as the upper and lower edges of the upper PR doors.

Like the upper doors, rails of the two-panel lower doors are through tenoned and double-pinned to the stiles. The medial stile is tenoned to the rails. The arched panels are set in dados in the rails and stiles. The top rails of the doors are rabbeted to form a door stop with the opposing rabbeted bottom edge of the drawer blade. Upper rails of the doors are decorated with a central inlaid maple tulip.

The drawer fronts are walnut with nailed maple cockbeading. They are of dovetail construction with wedged dovetails. Bottoms are chamfered on the underside edges of the sides, are set in dados in the sides and front and are nailed to the edge of the back from below. Sides, backs and bottoms are of ½” tulip poplar. Drawer door knobs are original.

Locks and hinges on the upper and lower doors are original. Key holes on all doors and drawers have diamond shaped inlaid maple key escutcheons.
Except as otherwise noted the cabinet is black walnut.
ProvenanceThe cupboard descended in the family of George Corriher of Rowan County, NC. Note from Robert Pearl 10/10/2001: The cupboard descended to Frank A. Corriher from one of the sons of George other than Henry. Frank said that his descendants were not farmers but instead established mills, such as grist and later cotton. The cotton mills later would be bought out by Cannon Mills in Kannapolis. As far back as he could remember, the cupboard stood in the old farm house his father lived in on Homer Corriher Road off Cannon Farm Road just west of Landis in Rowan County. The farm house dates to ca. 1880.