Unlike literature, in any piece of antique mourniture that has given some real value or even much appeal to me, there is always a hidden part. In fact, I often wonder if all the secret compartments of your pieces were known to the original owners, or if they were aware of how much they used it. Others had been large enough for many letters others were too small.Īn oeuvre so filled with secrets is reminiscent of the answer that Robert Browning once asked about the significance of his particular poetry: 'God and Robert Browning knew the meaning when I wrote it only God knows the meanings.' Some had been so small that only half a penny, or half a dozen pieces of continental currency could be accommodated. At this simple slant-top desk there were 21. At the end, the owner came to my aid and found out that I overlooked some of them. Occasionally I spent an afternoon in an American office who seemed very unaware to someone seeking to search the underground chambers. Some pieces have a key, some have a ranking. Just when a cabinetmaker is sent for comprehensive retrofitting has other items yielded their caches. Over many years I know a collector who has owned a piece of furniture until I learn that it has has a hidden room. The prefect 's comprehensive statement on the stupidity of everyone who does not find a secret drawer shows that he knows little about the cabinetmaker 's know-how. But next to the stage are the specifics of the plot. Auguste Dupin, who will actually locate the letter missing and get a 50,000 franc bonus. For any cabinet there is a certain amount of space to compensate for. The French police chief says, 'any man is a dolt who helps the 'code' to escape in such a search.' 'That is so clear. However, since the turn of the 19th century these have been existing only.īefore that, the man of property guarded his moving belongings against the robberies in heavy boxes and carefully concealed spaces in furniture and behind secret panels that confounded the outsider like the new, discreet mix.Įdgar Allen Poe tells in his mystery of the Purlosed Letter the thorough search of a compromise letter from a royal minister's apartments, Mr.

Active people today retain their current assets and securities and shares and so on in safe deposit boxes in banks and markets. So fine indeed, they are ideal for being considered as just literary props that help the plot and maintain the suspense required. Secrets for gold, stocks, ancestral jewels, silver coin, a lack of will, or a carefully crafted confession of a criminal offense committed years ago, were well served by fiction authors. Which open cloaks, candlesticks, drawers and other compartments to the concealed writing surfaces. The job is always loaded with dark magic like any Apple app. The characteristic feature of the work is the innovative mechanical devices by Roentgen They were also able to market themselves, including much of the European royalty and aristocracy, with a list of customers.Īt the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, more than 60 furniture pieces by father and son are currently on display. Their furnishings are exquisite and decorated with golden inlay and dizzying marquetry. Their carefully built work is an amazing combination of art and engineering. The Roentgens – German decorators in the 18th century – were like the late founder of Apple Computer masters in the development of beautiful objects for households filled with brilliant, functionality and entertainment. This thing has hidden drawers in hidden drawers, all operated by a sophisticated mechanical system: The hidden drawer design comes to its zenith from a desk designed by the Roentgen brothers for King Friedrich William II. I guess the paranoid engineering CEOs today are still in their modernistic escape bunker with some underground compartments. Secret compartments such as this have been a common characteristic of furniture in the Victorian era. The documents were a record of John Dee 's interactions with angels. A couple years later Susannah, a widow now, has the courage to take the papers with her. Some time before the couple planned to put paper back into the box, their maid used some half of the paper to make pastry. A huge amount of papers, mysterious writings and signs, were poured out in an olivewood rosary. We heard a rattling inside and investigated a hidden cabinet. The pair spent twenty years with their hearts before they wanted to switch them one day. Robert and Susannah Jones, a married couple, purchased a large used chest in 1642.

Antique dresser with hidden drawer