Studio: international art (43.1908)

Old Cupboards

churches the cupboard often represented the
sacristy itself, but in the larger churches the latter
was an apartment which was often filled with
armoires for divers purposes.

With regard to the evolution of the cupboard
Havard informs us that it is to be traced to the
chest, which fulfilled the purpose of a general
receptacle, and that as special needs arose the
chest became by degrees differentiated into a great
variety of forms adapted to distinct purposes and
known under various names, as bookcases, linen-
presses, wardrobes, dressers, sideboards, secretaires,
and so forth, their shapes being of course even
more varied than their names. It is difficult to
imagine when and where the idea of having an
upright article of furniture for the safe bestowal of
valuables or of clothing
first arose, but it must have
been at a very early period.

The first cupboards, how-
ever, were built in the panel-
ling of the walls of the
living-rooms—often, in fact,
being mere blinds to cover
the entrance to secret
hiding-places ; and the
necessity of the times pro-
duced much ingenuity in
this particular direction.

In these cupboards were
stored the treasures of the
family. Both hanging and
standing cupboards are the
lineal descendants of the
chest, the first step in the
evolution being to place
one chest on another, and
later two together in an
upright position, the doors
taking the place of the lids
and opening longitudinally
instead of horizontally.

At first there was no
attempt at ornamentation,
the chief point being to
make the cupboards secure,
which was done by strong

what ingenuity was exercised in those days in
inventing intricate appliances which should defy
all but the initiated.

Till the fourteenth century, cupboards were a
kind of upright box, massively built, and usually
square or “ squat ” in form, and with little, if any,
external ornamentation. Though early in the
fifteenth century and onwards to the middle of the
sixteenth century the fashion of painting chests
prevailed—especially in Italy—it was not the case
with cupboards, except in the Alpine lands, where
they were occasionally painted and at the same
time ornamented with wood sculpture; but this
combination method of decoration was by no
means general. In the course of time, though the
armoires lost nothing of their solidity of construction,

locks and iron clamps.

They had to play the part

of the modern thief-proof

safe, as did also the strong

chests in which treasure

was kept. The locksmith’s

work of bygone ages shows FIG' 3-—sacristy cupboard, saizburg (1460)

( Count Wilczelis Collection)

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