A Good and Honest Life

APPLE GREEN JELLY CUPBOARD, SHENANDOAH VALLEY, VIRGINIA; 1840-1870

Here’s a wonderful example of an antique with all the right stuff. Look at the wear, how it reveals it’s past use so eloquently. This preserve cupboard has wonderful form, primitive construction and beautiful apple green paint. It has honesty.

I love how this item is described by the auction house, Jeff Bridgeman American Antiques. The words are obviously from someone who really knows furniture of this period. The words are so full of deep descriptors, and reads (in part) as follows: 

“...the piece is typical of Shenandoah Valley furniture, with high, bootjack feet and cast hinges applied to the face rather than mortised. The plank wood is yellow pine throughout. There are wooden spinners to hold the doors shut and knobs constructed of a wooden spool. The triple half-moon cutouts that form the backsplash are probably not original to the cupboard. The wood is original, as the splash is an extension of the vertical backboards, but the scalloping was probably added at some point in the history of the cupboard, maybe following damage to the original splash, which was probably squared off. The current design is visually appealing, however, and has become part of its history. Country furniture that dates to the mid-19th century, with attractive paint, is very scarce, primarily because the contents of so many structures in this area were burned during the Civil War (1861 - 1865). So surviving examples of this time period, made even before, during, or slightly after the war during reconstruction, are coveted by collectors.”

It is priced at $6,500. 

Jeff R. Bridgeman American Antiques, Historic York County, PA

Phone: 717-502-1281  Photography by Jeff R. Bridgeman