Liquor Cabinet

“Secret Spirits”

Winner of the 2019 Pinnacle Award

We designed this liquor cabinet to be a functional piece of art furniture while creating both an interactive piece of Abstract Expressionistic sculpture and an Abstract Expressionistic painting where the interior decoration reflect the exterior decoration that wraps around the case and legs.

The negative space between the legs and angled supports is an interplay of form and color. The cabinet has five secret compartments including the two front doors utilizing custom magnetic locks.

The cabinet was designed to pay homage to the historically important cabinetmakers who have come before us such as the great German furniture makers, Abraham and David Roentgen and the French Ébéniste André-Charles Boulle who often created furniture with secret mechanical compartments, that were only accessible to those who knew how to access them.

This cabinet is a 21st century interpretation of an historically important cabinet form called a cabinet on stand which was a very popular form in England and in Europe during the middle of the 17th century through the first quarter of the 18th century when it was often revered to as “A Cabinet of Wonder” because it housed many treasures of the natural worlds as well as ancient artifacts and precious jewels. These cabinets were owned by the royal families of England and Europe and were often ornately decorated with inlaid wood, ivory, mother of pearl, tortoise shell, and various metals as well as being adorned with silver and gold mounts reflecting the Baroque and Rococo Periods. Our version of this historic furniture form was designed to allow its owner to impress their guest with the treasures of the finest spirts.

One of a Kind

Materials:

A combination of “old stock” domestic and imported woods to include solid Honduran Mahogany, Sapele veneer for the case and inlaid and laminated Marblewood, Vermillion, Brazilian Rosewood, Ceylon Satinwood, American Black Walnut, Mottled Bubinga, and Macassar Ebony.

Construction:

The cabinet is constructed with traditional hand joinery including mortice and tenons, dovetails, dados, and rabbit joinery. The cabinet is constructed to the highest standards reminiscent of the great 17th and 18th century Ébéniste. The cabinet has essentially five secret compartments utilizing hand crafted custom hardware. These secret compartments include the two exterior doors which have no way to open them unless you know the “secret” and four interior compartments. The exterior doors and the two upper compartments in the interior containing the single doors; are accessed by placing a sculptural exotic wood element in specific unmarked places on the right exterior door and on the shelve above the two interior doors. These sculptural magnetic wood “keys” are part of the sculptural decoration located on the top shelf of the interior to unlock the two single doors and in the drawer below the exterior doors to unlock the right exterior door. Two additional secret compartments are accessed by removing the exotic wood element located between the two interior compartments from its dado and leaving the two magnetic wood “keys” in place ensuring the locking pins are in their retracted position, then the two single compartments can be slide on custom stainless steel tracks to the left and right revealing two compartments behind. These “secret” places within the cabinet are to house your most prized “spirits”, hence the title “Secret Spirits”. The drawer is fitted with a sliding top for a preparation or mixing counter and with an adjustable partitioned interior for all the necessary bar accoutrements.