Small Cupboard

Cupboards such as this were not only practical for storage but also served to display the family's beautiful dishes and glassware. Walnut was plentiful in the woods around the French settlements in Illinois and became a useful and popular wood for furniture. A small cupboard with six wine bottles was valued at 15 livres in the estate inventory of Marie Catherine Baron in Kaskaskia, 1748.

Reproduction of a slightly larger eighteenth century cupboard found in Quebec.
Made by Franklin Woodworking, Prairie du Rocher, IL, 1991

© Illinois State Museum 31-Dec-96