9 drawer apothecary cupboard

detail

My reproduction of an early apothecary cupboard, with drawers for Rottenstone, Ground Allspice, Epsom Salts & Camphor, Ground Cinnamon, Alum, Cloves, Chocolate, Pepper and Sulphur. So many things about the original appealed to me. First, the fact that none of the drawers are either square or the same size...made me wonder which came first, the case or the drawers. Judging by the fact that several of the drawers had holes from previous knobs, some of which are way off-center, I would guess that it was originally made up at least partially of reused drawers from some earlier piece, and a case made to contain them. The outside case is the only part of this entire piece that is square. All of the drawers and the dividers between them are a little off-kilter, and several thicknesses of wood were used, making it necessary to do the joinery by hand. I always love in early signs and pieces like this that were likely made 'by the user-for the user', there didn't seem to be any need for measuring, letter spacing etc. If space ran out when painting a word, the rest was squeezed in somewhere or omitted altogether. It's also interesting to notice that the drawers for Chocolate and Cinnamon are much more distressed than the others, having contained more popular items.
My version is made of all new solid pine. The case joined with hand-cut dovetails, back is wide pine boards, drawers have hand chamfered panel bottoms. All nails are antique square nails and knobs are aged cast metal, with some slightly different than others. Heavily aged inside and out, and I have lightly scented some of the drawers, ie. Cloves, Cinnamon, Pepper etc.  Dimensions excl. knobs are approximately, W34.5" x H24" x D12.25". Click photos to enlarge.          Sold.