Rustic Hickory Step-Back Cupboard

We are delighted to be offering (now sold) an impressive hickory step-back cupboard.

After nearly three decades of specializing in antique rustic and hickory furniture, it is invigorating for us to find a stellar form such as this cupboard that we have never encountered before.

It was made circa 1925 by Rustic Hickory Furniture Company of LaPorte, Indiana, and retains its original, attractive plum-colored hickory seed logo label on the back.

The label is shown here in the center of the upper third of the back.

The sides, doors and shelves are solid oak, and the back panel is laminated oak.

Step-back cupboard designs such as this accommodate both display storage on open shelving, and hidden storage behind cupboard doors.

This cupboard has three open shelves (each 10” deep) on the top half of the cupboard which are great for displaying serveware, collectibles or even books.

There are two shelves (18” deep) behind the cupboard doors in the base.

The most notable feature of the cupboard is its hickory pole trim. The two front corners of the bottom portion of the cupboard are trimmed with two adjoining hickory half-rounds. This is an elegant way to wrap a corner so that it resembles a full hickory pole leg.

Halved hickory poles also trim the back edges of the cabinet, the front shelves and support brackets, the cupboard doors, and the crown.

A truly unique trim treatment is that delicate halved hickory poles outline the scalloped sides of the cupboard top, as well as the scallops beneath the crown.

Trimming long, undulating curves with thin, continuous hickory strips is a treatment we've not seen on hickory furniture, and would have required skilled woodworking to execute.

Other details are the cupboard’s brass-plated hardware: four butterfly hinges, two door latches, and casters on the four feet.

In short, the cupboard is super functional and really handsome. It is large enough to provide ample storage, but is not so big that it overwhelms a room. The overall dimensions are 51.75" wide across the front, 21.75" deep, and 73.5" high.

This cupboard is also extremely rare, if not unique. Since we have not found it any of the original Rustic Hickory Furniture Company catalogs, we think it could have been a custom order for the home it came from, which was built in the 1920’s and then furnished entirely with pieces made by Old Hickory and Rustic Hickory Furniture companies.

Market Perspective

Antique hickory case pieces come on the market far less often than hickory seating and tables, and are even rarer than smaller accessories such as hickory lighting and magazine holders.

This is in part because the original Indiana hickory manufacturers producing furniture during the first half of the 20th century made far fewer case pieces, so it stands to reason that they are harder to find on the antiques market today.

Another reason is that hickory case pieces, including dressers, armoires and small cabinets, tend to stay put in homes, camps and lodges throughout generations of families. Even when a historic rustic home changes family ownership, the larger furniture often conveys with the house.

So it is unusual that despite this cupboard having been in one family’s lakeside home in the Adirondacks for several generations, the final family members to own the property decided to sell its contents separately from the house.

We thus consider ourselves lucky to have acquired the home’s high-quality rustic furniture, including this cupboard. Our gratifying mission now is finding renewed purpose for it in the rustic abode of another family, where it will perhaps reside for another few generations.