Images(7)

Safe, Food

Date1830-1845

OriginAmerica, Tennessee, Greene County

MediumBlack walnut, tulip poplar, and tinned iron

DimensionsOH: 52 1.4"; OW: 54 1/4"; OD: 18 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Mary Jo Case

Object number2015.2000.1

DescriptionAppearance:
Safe with rectangular top with applied rounded edge on front and sides; two scratch beaded side by side drawers with keyholes (locks missing) and wooden knob pulls over two doors with scratch bead around perimeter and four part punched tin panels each; upper tins are duplicates with an architectural arch over a star, a heart flanked by diamonds and a flower (no stems on any flowers) and flowers in the top corners flanking a central diamond over the arch; lower tins are duplicates with an architectural arch over a star, a four leaf clover and a flower, with hears in the top corners of tins; ends of safe each have a vertical three-part punched tin panel; top tin depicts an architectural arch over a star and a flower flanked on either side vertically by a flower, a heart and a diamond; middle tin depicts an arch over a star and a flower flanked on either side vertically by a heart, two diamonds, and a heart; bottom tin depicts a double handled vase, diamonds in the top corners and hearts in the bottom corners; turned feet, baluster shaped feet with rings at ankles.

Construction:
The single board top is nailed to the stiles, upper side rails and upper rail of the frame back. The upper and lower rails of the sides are tenoned with double through-pegs into the stiles forming a frame, the interior edges of which are dadoed to hold three tin perforated panels. Thin strips have been added inside the dados behind the panels to compensate for the dados being wider than the tin inserts. The upper and lower rails of the back are tenoned and double through-pegged to the stiles forming a frame with dados on the interior edges to receive a two board panel, chamfered in back to fit into the dados. The half-round mitered top molding is nailed to the top around the sides and front.

The upper front rail is probably dove-tailed to the top of the stiles. The drawer blade and lower front rail are tenoned and pegged to the stiles. The vertical drawer separator is tenoned and pegged to the drawer blade and tenoned and probably pegged to the upper rail. A full width interior rail is nailed to the back of the drawer blade and extends ½” below it. It provides a stop for the cabinet doors.
Immediately behind the drawer separator, the center support for both drawers is a 5 3/8” x ¾” board nailed to the top of the secondary rail and to the upper rail of the back from the back. The drawer guide for both drawers is a second board glued and nailed to the top of the center drawer support. The outer drawer guides are dovetailed to the stiles; the outer drawer supports are glued to the guides and nailed at both ends to the stiles.

The supports for the removable interior shelf are dovetailed into the stiles as is the proper right support for the bottom; the proper left bottom support (replaced) is half-dovetailed to the stiles and the bottom is nailed to it (the original support was probably dove-tailed like the proper right support). There is evidence that the bottom had been toe-nailed to the proper right side rail. The turned legs are integral to the stiles.

The rails of the doors are through-tenoned and pegged into the stiles. Like the sides, the tin panels of the doors rest in dados in the interior edges of the rails and stiles, and require thin wooden strips inside the dados to compensate for the wide dados. The edges of the rails and stiles are scratch beaded. Box hinges on the door are original.

The scratch-beaded drawer fronts are half-blind dovetailed to the sides. The back of the proper left drawer is nailed from the back to the edges of the sides; the sides of the proper right drawer are nailed from the sides to the edges of the back. Side to side grained drawer bottom boards are chamfered to fit into dados in the fronts and sides. Drawer bottoms extend beyond the backs and are nailed to the bottom of the backs from underneath. Drawer knobs (possibly replaced) are joined to the fronts with round tenons.

Woods: primary wood is walnut for all parts except the stiles, which are tulip poplar; tulip poplar secondary.
Label TextPunched tin food safes were ubiquitous in southwestern Virginia, East Tennessee, and other parts of the inland South during the 19th century. In an era before refrigeration, the punched tins provided air flow for food stuffs, but limited access by insects. Safes were typically used in kitchens, but the cabinet-grade woods and serving height seen on examples from East Tennessee (as here) suggest that some were used in dining rooms.

Safe cases and the tins were often made by two different craftsmen—a cabinetmaker or carpenter and a tin smith—but a few woodworkers also produced the tins. While many designs were punched into the tins of 19th-century safes, including geometric motifs, flowers, arches, buildings, eagles and more, architectural arches and double-handled vases like those seen here were often found on safes made in East Tennessee.

Remnants of red and yellow paint were discovered on the tins and case of this safe, indicating that at some point in the 19th century, possibly originally, it was faux grained in those colors. An early or mid- 20th-century refinishing removed those and other later paint layers from the piece.