Lot Essay
"This cupboard appears in the catalogue of the Stedelijk Museum and is dated 1926. Two originals and two remakes are illustrated. The cupboard on offer is similar to the originals. Rietveld used his cupboard in his ever carefree way. He obviously needed it without the upper shelf and with the second though reduced in depth. The upper one he simply cut out. The mortise joints which went through the side walls remained seated. It can now be restored in a simple manner. I deliberately did not 'touch' it to maintain its authenticity.
This cupboard has a great affinity with the design Rietveld made together with Truus Schröder for a stack unit (cat. no. 106). This has the dimensions 78 x 26 x 26 cm., and also has dovetail joints at the corners."
"When Rietveld got married in 1911 he made several pieces of furniture for his household: an octagonal table, a bench and cupboards. In a Dutch household with a bourgeois housewife like Rietveld's wife Vrouwgien, a peel potato dish should not be missing. Being a carpenter Rietveld surely made this himself, certainly when he still had time for it in 1911. And so a well-made square oak dish with sloping walls connected with diagonal dovetails was born. From the time we went to live at Vredenburg we used it whenever potatoes were on our menu."
This cupboard has a great affinity with the design Rietveld made together with Truus Schröder for a stack unit (cat. no. 106). This has the dimensions 78 x 26 x 26 cm., and also has dovetail joints at the corners."
"When Rietveld got married in 1911 he made several pieces of furniture for his household: an octagonal table, a bench and cupboards. In a Dutch household with a bourgeois housewife like Rietveld's wife Vrouwgien, a peel potato dish should not be missing. Being a carpenter Rietveld surely made this himself, certainly when he still had time for it in 1911. And so a well-made square oak dish with sloping walls connected with diagonal dovetails was born. From the time we went to live at Vredenburg we used it whenever potatoes were on our menu."