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So for something a little different. While I was out antiquing, I happened to come across this wonderful sewing cabinet. I have been looking for a good one for the past decade, but hadn’t found some thing that really struck me that I had to take home.
So this particular one passed the dad test. And what I mean by that is my father was a woodshop teacher, and even worked at Pennsylvania House Furniture in his early career. My father had exquisite taste especially solid hardwood furniture. And that definitely has passed on to me and my tastes in furniture. My father particularly liked the bicentennial style from Pennsylvania house that was in a catalog from 1976. Most of my parents furniture in the house was actually from that catalog and everything was gorgeous and unfortunately, a lot of these pieces I was not able to take once my parents passed.
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This tends to be a challenge for a lot of children in general once their parents elderly, and also when the household items be sorted out. I already had pieces of my own ones that my husband already had there changing or upgrading. The pieces of furniture my husband has are also solid wood and came from his mother’s furniture that she got over the years.
So getting back to this particular item, it actually is made by Ferguson and Brothers furniture company out of Hoboken, New Jersey. They made furniture from the 1890s till 1953. This piece would definitely be early turn of the century. And it is actually made out of solid mahogany. The reason I can tell this is because of the inner tray is normally made out of the underlying wood if there was more than one used in a piece of furniture. Most commonly popular tends to be an interior solid furniture. In this case, it was such a small piece they use the fine wood throughout.
The finely turned legs on the bottom of this piece is what really sold me. It has these beautiful feet as well as the tuned crossbar even has some extra decoration that you don’t tend to see as many versions of these freestanding sewing cabinets.
Here is a great shot of the makers, mark and serial number on uthe bottom of the piece. The company name being Ferguson B.M. Co. If I’m able to locate a catalog of their pieces, I might have an idea as to when the exact year of manufacturer happens to be.
So this piece is going to live in my bedroom right next to my work desk and I am going to fill it with all sorts of notions and treasures. Recently procured many antique looking scissors, thimbles, awls, pincushions and other wonderful sewing items that I will use regularly. Keeping her close by so it is going to be well loved. I definitely think both my parents guided me to this particular piece because it is definitely something I could see them having amongst their kind of furniture if mom had done more sewing. I happen to have a sewing cabinet of hurst that holds a vintage sewing machine that I definitely will not get rid of.
When I brought this home. I did have to thoroughly clean it. I do use a special beeswax restoring finish, really put moisture into the piece. There was a sliding mechanism that the doors simultaneously open and closed. I had to take the tacked panel off and fix that sliding mechanism. Then was able to put the panel back. Luckily there was some loose screws already in the piece that I was able to Secure these sliding bar and then also screw in the mechanism on the right hand panel. I used some tiny dowels to fill the holes so then when I put the screws back in, it had some bite. And all of this little bits of knowledge that I have about fixing simple things like this comes from my dad so thank you, dad!
Hoping to find more items like this that have meaning, but also have some connection to family even if it is just in spirit.
Thoughtful,
Maureen
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