This mahogany cabinet combines antique curved glass with a thoroughly contemporary design: all four sides of the cabinet have an irregular natural edge, with the frames for the curved glass nestled within this enclosure. The geometric regularity of the front elements is fitted to the natural edges in much the same way that a house is fitted to the shape of the landscape.
The curved glass was salvaged from a display cabinet that had been abandoned outdoors. The second photo shows the remains of the original cabinet, with its symmetrical placement of the two curved windows. This is a familiar design popular about a hundred years ago, at the height of the Arts & Crafts movement. The old cabinet had a glass door panel and a back mirror, as well, both of which found their way into the new piece.
Several design constraints arose from the basic concept of accommodating the old glass pieces in this particular cabinet, and the resulting solutions add a measure of charm to the piece. For example, finding a way to support the right-front shelf corner led to an interesting threaded-rod solution, just visible in the picture.
So the old glass was reborn in our new cabinet, perhaps by virtue of good karma accrued during its long previous life.
I was told a story, probably in the mid 60s by someone, who perhaps was in some way associated with an art glass supplier. I was sufficiently into working with glass to discover I had a knack for cutting it in complex shapes. As the story goes there was a guy who would accept glass to be curved according to specification. I’m guessing he was situated somewhere in the north bay. When delivering the glass to his barn he would instruct the deliverer to pass it through the partially opened barn door chained to prevent any observation of what was going on inside. On the date the glass would be ready you would go up to the door. It would be opened and the now curved glass would be again passed through the opening and payment made. Evidently there were craft secrets to curving glass and no one was privy to his methods or allowed in the shop.
Sorry Robert, this just got to me. What a wonderful story. We are getting our curved glass from somebody in Oklahoma now, so I have no idea what secrets they harbor. I was impressed with how well they packaged the glass, however. You could have dropped it from a balcony without worries.