Featured My Mother's 1949 German Sitting Room Cabinet

Hey all,

Due to lack of space my Mother has to get rid of her Grandmother's beloved old 1949 sitting room (Wallnut?) cabinet. We however do not know anything about antiques and would appreciate if anyone knew anything about these sorts of cabinets (What is the furnitures style? How would we describe it?). Does anyone know roughly what it might be worth?

Many thanks in advance,
James

PS: If anyone wants to buy it and pick it up from Switzerland, let me know.

 

looks like it might be a bahre mignon shrunk based on the black drawer front

 

Welcome Super Jimbo.
Antiques are at least 100 years old, so 1949 doesn't really qualify as antique.
Are there any plaques or stickers from the manufacturer or retailer anywhere?
Before you offer it for sale you might want to repair that one handle, it makes it more presentable.

It doesn't look like it could be from the Mignon line, which is very much mid-century in style. Although this is mid-century in date, at the time it was considered a more conservative style.
Bähre furniture usually has a plaque somewhere like this one from the Mignon line:


https://www.ebay.de/itm/50er-Jahre-...m287b88cd75:g:FZIAAOSw-0xYUrD2&frcectupt=true

Schrank maybe?

 

in the industry [and i have sold many many many of these] they are referred to as shrunks for simplicity. noone likes to say shrank. when you add a date then you then you know what its going to look like. thats if you buy and sell furniture.

if you can show me any other company that applies that specific design cue to their furniture i would appreciate it.

 

Somehow I doubt people in Germany, where this cabinet was made, or Switzerland, where this can be picked up, ever refer to this as shrunk, or shrank.
Since it can be picked up in Switzerland and probably never left the European continent, North American terms won't apply. After all, James can hardly tell a Swiss person that this is a shrunk, can he? He calls it a cabinet, so maybe he calls it a Kabinett in German, which we can't argue with imo.
I am pretty sure the German-speakers know their own furniture, they have been selling it for a few centuries longer than you have, and more of it too.

If you really want to use a term which sounds German, this could be called a Kabinett, Vitrinenschrank, Vitrinenmöbel, Vitrine, Vitrinenkabinett etc. But I don't think James needs us foreigners telling him what he should call it in German.

It could be from another Bähre range, but in that case it would likely have had a label at some stage. Bähre manufactured a lot of affordable furniture.

 

LOL, Oh Dear! The Schrank has Shrunk?
I have seen german/dutch american 18th century wardrobes referred to as a "schrank" or "kas" and, they are very large massive cabinets.
I don't think Super Jimbo piece has anything to do with that though.

 

I must confess, my first thought was something like this

 

That's it! It Shrunk!

 

Let this be a lesson, never wash a Schrank in boiling water.

 

There was a schrank that sold here for over a million bucks by a famous paint decorator a couple years ago, a Huguenot that spoke palatine german? whatever that is. Let me see if i can find it, it was gorgeous!

Absolutely! bad mojo there, it'll SHRUNK!

 

His family could have fled to the Palatinate? Huguenots ended up in many parts of Europe. They set up the silver industry in Hanau, Hessen, Germany together with Dutch silversmiths.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the inputs! In our family we lovingly refer to the "piece of furniture"(Using a neutral term here) as Oma's Schrank which translates to Granny's Shrunk/Schrank.

When my Great-Grandmother purchased the cabinet in 1949 she was very proud as it was a symbol that they were recovering from the war and were emerging from war torn post-war Hamburg/Germany.

As I'm currently in the UK I have tasked my mother to inspect it for any plaques or signs of a brand or carpenter. She'll also be asking her Dad about it. I'll report back to all of you once I know more!

I'm German/English/Swiss (Yes, 3 passports) and thus I speak German, English and French. The beautiful thing about languages is that they change over time. Often loan words don't change, but in this case it seems it has. It's interesting to see how Schrank has adapted into shrunk in some places! it's something I didn't know.

 

I think they fled france to the netherlands or germany, then on to pennsylvania.
Jacob & John Bieber (father & son) operated a sawmill in Olney Township PA, these guys could PAINT! they were joiners by trade.

Jacob schrank/ sold for 829k in 2010, not quite a million
click to enlarge

The son John chest, In the Philly Museum of Art

 

Sorry to hijack your thread! We got off on schranks that shrunk somehow!
I have no clue about your Mother's cabinet, sorry

 

I'm not too sure it has. James Conrad is also in North America and calls it a Schrank, as most Americans I know do. None of them have a problem with the word Schrank, as Alex says people have (whyever?). So it could be an extremely regional thing.

We'll await your mother's report.

And apologies for the meander. We tend to do that.

 

Absolutely gorgeous, James. The chest looks pretty small, as if it shrunk. But really stunning.

 

that's not a Schrank - or in Swiss Schrangg - but part of a living room ensemble that normally go under the term Wohnwand or eventually Schlafzimmermöbel (because of the drawer for the lady's jewelry).

 

Well, there you go.
In Dutch we would call it wandmeubel, which would be like Wohnwand I suppose.

 

This also now easier to read....

 

Thanks, Aqui. If the Wohnwand/cabinet is from the Mignon range of Bähre, it should have one of those. It could have a different name.
I don't think it will matter much in value. I browsed the German ebay site and there was no price difference between Bähre and other furniture of the same style.
Germany churned this kind of affordable furniture out by the trainloads. All over Europe people had lost homes and belongings, and ironically it was mainly Germany that filled the gap it had created only a few years before.
The MCM designs that were also made are popular now, but this cabinet doesn't fit the bill.