Armoire - Armoire

Walnut and cherry armoire with paneled doors. The cornice is composed of a cavetto and a cyma molding. The cornice is doweled into the top of the case on the sides with two dowels on each side. It consists of four rails. The back rail is set into a rabbet on the two side rails. The front rail is glue blocked in the front two corners and a rail is nailed to the two side rails at the base between the glue block and the back rail. There is a rail nailed between the glue blocks on the front rail. The top board is rabbeted on the front three sides and dadoed into the front three rails. The cornice is set on an angle and screwed into the front rail and cut at an angle and joined to the two side rails of the cornice. The two sides are nailed to the side rail of the architrave and the two front joints are glue blocked. The back proper left corner is secured with an angled block of wood that is nailed once at the cornice and once at the base board and glue blocked. The other side is presumably missing. The proper right glue block between the cornice has added screws. There are two triangular blocks and there were originally three, one at either side of the top of the cornice top and one in the center that have holes that suggest that a carved element would have been doweled into it. The two case sides are each a single board with a rabbet cut into it for the top board to sit into. The feet are cut out in a profile to create the illusion of bracket feet. The base board rests on two cypress rails that are screwed into the sides. The front skirt rail is nailed onto the two sides and the feet are a separate piece that is also tacked onto the sides. The front skirt rail has a molding cockbead that is tacked on to the top and the bottom board, separating it from the feet on the bottom and from the case of the piece on the top. The backboard is three panels. A groove is cut into both sides of the center panel and the side panels are let into the central panel. The entire back panel is nailed to the sides of the case. The two side back panels are cut at the base to form the back two bracket feet. The doors rest on small replacement brass hinges and consist of a lightly chamfered central panels dadoed into two stiles and two rails. The rails are mortised and tenoned into the stiles. The proper left door has a possibly replaced or rescrewed lock and replacement hook and eye. The shelves rest on battens with three nails and are mitered in the front. The nail holes are filled. There are four shelves, the third shelf down is the top of a three drawer case. The top of the drawer case rests on the battens. The drawer case holds two drawers and three spacers. The case of the band of drawers has poplar rails that extend from the sides of a spacer and are nailed and filled from the top of the shelf. The drawer blade is nailed to both the rails that divide the drawers and the blocks that cover the rails. The drawer supports are individual rails that are nailed to the bottom of the drawer dividers. There are circular saw marks on the third shelf. The piece originally only had two shelves. The original top shelf is currently the second shelf and has been lowered. The ghost marks for the original placement survive. The second shelf is the shelf above the drawers and is original and in its original location. The top and bottom shelves are both later additions, that were added at different times. The side rails of the drawers are rabbeted into the front board and are nailed with two cut nails. The back rail is nailed on either side to the side rails. The cedar base board is chamfered and dadoed into the front and two sides and nailed to the back with a single nail. The two side rails extend beyond the back rail to form drawer stops. The two drawers have two original turned wood knobs screwed into the front rail. The corners of the piece have been rounded. The front panels of the doors have a molded decoration that is mitered and sprigged into the corners. Cherry is both a primary and secondary wood.