Just like the frustrated police chief in Poe’s tale, uncovering the secrets of antique furniture with secret compartments can be difficult. Without knowing where to look, one might spend hours flitting their fingers along panels and carved motifs, searching for their mysteries. The suspense and challenges associated with concealed drawers and pigeonholes remain part of their lasting allure.
While most people today opt to store their cash, jewelry and other prized valuables in banks or safety-deposit boxes, these services were non-existent before the 19th century. Private individuals sought other means to protect their most important objects, and secret compartments in furniture became an essential way to guard against thieves or nosy individuals. Many of these hiding places took the form of false bottom drawers, hidden cabinets and cleverly placed hidden door panels. Others opted for safes or other locking boxes that, while less secretive, allowed a high level of security for their precious materials.
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One of the most intimate forms of art, the miniature represents a compelling chapter in the history of art. While large-scale portraits served as a testament to one’s power and importance, the miniature had a far different purpose. Given as personal gifts to loved ones and bestowed as rewards for loyal supporters, they were meant to be kept close and private as a reminder of one’s love, faith or fealty. Today, they offer us a glimpse into a world that no longer exists — of courtiers and kings, of generals and revolutionaries — each rendered down to the most minute detail. Yet, the emotional impulses behind their creation remain familiar, and it is this dichotomy that makes them so captivating to contemporary viewers and collectors.
Furniture
Safes & Lockboxes
Chippendale
Snuff Boxes
Swiss Ideal Music Box and Cabinet by Mermod Frères. Circa 1886. M.S. Rau New Orleans
Favre, unfortunately, never enjoyed success from his discovery; poor health forced his retirement, and he died a poor man. However, by the early 19th century, other Swiss craftsmen and horologists were applying the cylinder comb technology to their own creations, giving rise to the cylinder music box industry. Switzerland remained the center of music box production throughout the invention’s prime, and they were an important Swiss export during the second half of the 19th century. In total, an estimated 10,000 artisans were employed in the Swiss music box industry. Makers such as Nicole Frères, B.A. Bremond, Mermod Frères and Charles Paillard came on the scene, creating some of the most beautiful cylinder boxes ever devised. Many of the most prized examples incorporated automatons that danced along to a tune or even other instruments like drums, bells, mandolins and castanets.
One of the most intimate forms of art, the miniature represents a compelling chapter in the history of art. While large-scale portraits served as a testament to one’s power and importance, the miniature had a far different purpose. Given as personal gifts to loved ones and bestowed as rewards for loyal supporters, they were meant to be kept close and private as a reminder of one’s love, faith or fealty. Today, they offer us a glimpse into a world that no longer exists — of courtiers and kings, of generals and revolutionaries — each rendered down to the most minute detail. Yet, the emotional impulses behind their creation remain familiar, and it is this dichotomy that makes them so captivating to contemporary viewers and collectors.
Automata in the Age
of Englightenment
One of the most intimate forms of art, the miniature represents a compelling chapter in the history of art. While large-scale portraits served as a testament to one’s power and importance, the miniature had a far different purpose. Given as personal gifts to loved ones and bestowed as rewards for loyal supporters, they were meant to be kept close and private as a reminder of one’s love, faith or fealty. Today, they offer us a glimpse into a world that no longer exists — of courtiers and kings, of generals and revolutionaries — each rendered down to the most minute detail. Yet, the emotional impulses behind their creation remain familiar, and it is this dichotomy that makes them so captivating to contemporary viewers and collectors.
Descartes view of animals as machines is a revelation into this progression: “Consider the body as a machine, which, having been made by the hands of God, is incomparably better coordinated and has much more admirable movement in it than any of those which could be invented by man.” Accordingly, these early androids were artificial creations that sought to mimic that which was made by God, possessing the appearance of a living being from their physical forms to their essential functions.
Automata and the Modern Era
The majority of these musical and mechanical figurines were influenced by the entertainment of their time and place. Paris during the Belle Époque was a whirlwind of lavish affairs and exotic amusements. The snake charmers and exotic dancers of the famed Folies-Bergère inspired a number of toymakers of the age, while the characters of the Nouveau Cirque and other circuses provided inspiration in the form of jugglers, animal trainers and clowns. These characters and more came to life in 19th-century drawing rooms thanks to the ingenuity and creativity of modern toymakers.
The majority of these musical and mechanical figurines were influenced by the entertainment of their time and place. Paris during the Belle Époque was a whirlwind of lavish affairs and exotic amusements. The snake charmers and exotic dancers of the famed Folies-Bergère inspired a number of toymakers of the age, while the characters of the Nouveau Cirque and other circuses provided inspiration in the form of jugglers, animal trainers and clowns. These characters and more came to life in 19th-century drawing rooms thanks to the ingenuity and creativity of modern toymakers.
Swiss Fusée Singing Bird Box by Frères Rochat. Circa 1830. M.S. Rau, New Orleans (Sold)
The history of musical machines is inextricably linked to the history of clocks. The same highly complex clockwork mechanisms that powered the great timepieces of the 16th and 17th centuries informed the creation of later automata, singing bird boxes and music boxes. In fact, the link between the clock and the automaton is seen as early as 3000 B.C.E., when Egyptian water clocks were equipped with human figurines possessing the ability to strike a bell on the hour.
The Strasbourg astronomical clock located in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame of Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is exemplary of the close ties between the development of the clock and the automaton. First built in 1352-54, it was later reconstructed in 1571-74 and featured several mechanical figures, as well as a calendar, orrery and other astronomical complexities. The addition of the moving figures made the religious message of the timepiece and its setting more vivid. In one particularly poignant group of figures, the twelve apostles parade before Jesus, who is depicted blessing each in turn. Although the clock in place today dates to the 19th century, fragments of earlier clocks are kept in the Strasbourg Museum for Decorative Arts, including the 14th-century gilded rooster, which is considered the oldest preserved automaton in the world.
As clockmakers of the 17th and 18th centuries invented increasingly more complex clockwork mechanisms, they turned their attention to other challenges in the form of automata, bird boxes and music boxes. These mechanical wonders soon became highly coveted objects of luxury entertainment for the wealthy classes, setting the stage for major technological developments to come.
The Age of Enlightenment (1685-1815) brought with it a new fascination for automata outside of their mere mechanics. During this period, European intellectuals embarked on a quest to uncover the secrets of the universe, which suddenly seemed within reach. Certain discoveries, such as the English physician William Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628, suggested that the basic functions and mechanics of the human body were knowable. Naturally, mechanisms that imitated the human form and human activities emerged soon thereafter.
The Industrial Revolution brought change to all sectors of society, the toymaking industry included. Thanks to a rapidly expanding middle class, a growing group of clientele emerged who were able and willing to pay for novelty items such as automata. Firms such as Roullet et Decamps, Bontems and Théroude became the first mass producers of these charming “toys,” most of which contained a small cylinder music box that played as an automaton performed its motions.
Etuis
Shop
Erotica
Canes
Within Nooks and Crannies:
Secret Compartments
in Furniture
Behind Lock and Key
Complex Safes & Lockboxes
Can you unlock the secrets of this George III masterpiece?
While some furniture items may surreptitiously hide sundries in secret compartments, safes are less discreet. Their very function is to conceal and protect valuable behind lock and key. While safes and lockboxes may be more transparent in their intention to conceal, extremely complex locking mechanisms can create added layers of security that represent a secret all their own.
A Crafty Cabinetmaker:
The Illustrious Thomas Chippendale
The Georgian period (1716-1830) brought new designs and aesthetic interests to England. The country’s rising, wealthy middle class formed the perfect clientele for new luxury furniture, including pieces that covertly conceal. One cabinetmaker, well-known for his use of secret compartments within his designs, remained popular beyond the rest: the inventive and innovative Thomas Chippendale. His name has become synonymous with a distinguishable style not because the furniture was made by him, but because of his foresight in publishing his incredible designs. In 1754, he published the first of three editions of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, the first catalogue of furniture design. This catalogue allowed patrons to pick out particular elements for their furniture and to have it custom made for them by the Chippendale workshop. So popular were the designs with the wealthy class of the mid-18th century that soon other furniture makers were using The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director as a pattern book for their own shops, making Chippendale-style furniture ubiquitous in English furniture.
Hidden in Antiques:
Finding the Unexpected
There is a certain novelty to finding the unexpected in small bits of everyday life. People tend to crave the unpredictable, fortuitous and exciting, as it adds more interest to the quotidian. As the early modern world began to take shape, rising wages and increased wealth in imperial nations expanded the clientele for small luxury objects — items that may have been considered frivolous in less prosperous times. These items did not only bring personal enjoyment; they were markers of status and demonstrations of disposable income and taste.
While the type of object could vary, the social capital that came from these antique treasures was amplified if the item was unique. Unexpected or hidden elements to these goods made a statement and provided a chance to show off the exciting aspects of the object.
Secretly Salacious:
Erotica in Plain Sight
Confidential Confessions:
Love Letters in Etui
Beat Boxes:
Musical Surprises
Secret Identities:
Hidden in Walking Sticks
Click to see the hidden compartments.
This extraordinary and rare English desk is an impeccable example of English campaign furniture with a few secret compartments perfect for storing an officer's important documents or currencies. M.S. Rau, New Orleans (Sold)
A Surprise Inside...
This early 18th-century secretaire is constructed with a myriad of secret compartments, drawers and pigeonholes, crafted entirely of solid walnut and burl walnut veneer. Secret compartments are revealed behind nearly every surface, even behind the handsome leather writing slope.
In Edgar Alan Poe’s beloved mystery The Purloined Letter, the French Chief of Police searches the apartments of a royal minister in vain for a letter stolen from royalty. In frustration, he states, “Any man is a dolt who permits a 'secret' to escape him in a search of this kind. The thing is so plain. There is a certain amount of bulk of space to be accounted for in every cabinet.”
AN INTRODUCTION
This classic secrétaire is a brilliant specimen of George III-period furniture displaying both the impressive scale and perfect proportions for which the style is known. The interior is skillfully fitted with a host of secret compartments in which to hide one’s important documents and valuables. M.S. Rau, New Orleans (Sold)
The history of automata and mechanical music is inextricably linked to humankind’s pursuit of knowledge: knowledge of science, knowledge of engineering and knowledge of our own humanity. Combining technical skill and artistry, automata, music boxes and singing bird boxes possess an intrinsic elegance and charm that continue to enchant onlookers to this day, even in an age of modern, on-demand entertainment. Human-shaped machines that convey the illusion of being alive, delightful little birds that plump their feathers and sing a tune, automatic music players that perform on par with a concert pianist...these captivating, ingenious and mysterious machines represent a remarkable history of invention, philosophical curiosity and popular culture that remains highly relevant. The Art of Sound: Automata and Mechanical Music explores these fascinating mechanisms and their lasting impact.
These narratives are not only reserved for the silver screen; on the contrary, they reveal humankind’s remarkable ability to innovate for the sake of concealment and protection. Throughout history, people have been seeking places to store their most cherished or guarded items. Legends of hidden chambers beneath the Ancient Egyptian pyramids fascinate us, and historical anecdotes of hidden stores of liquor during Prohibition remind us of our own vices. Whether letters, keys, documents or more sentimental items, the practicality of stealthily concealing these articles or masking an item’s true purpose is accented by the simple satisfaction of storing something private away from prying eyes.
When viewing fine art and antiques, it is easy to become enraptured in their outward aesthetic beauty and forget to probe deeper. What appears to be a simple utilitarian piece of furniture, decorative box or walking stick may have secrets hiding in plain sight. Hidden in Plain Sight explores the clandestine compartments and ulterior purposes harbored just below the surface in some of the most intriguing objects in M.S. Rau’s collection.
This narrative trope of concealed materials reappears throughout literature and film. C.S. Lewis’s beloved tale The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe sparks the imagination with the story of a hidden realm right in the back of a seemingly quotidian cabinet. Movie-goers watch in awe as James Bond’s apparently benign attaché case reveals a cache of weapons or his cigarette case transforms into a remote control device.
Drawings from Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director, published 1754.
George I Walnut Secretaire. Circa 1720. M.S. Rau, New Orleans. (Sold)