French Corner Cabinet

Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon at 5 in the morning, this early 20th-century French corner cupboard was the kind of piece Sylvie wakes up before sunrise hoping to find. It's an encoignure, the French form built to fit into the corner of a country room without taking up the floor, a tradition that goes back to the 1700s. The two paneled doors curve out in a soft bow, the apron is scalloped in the Louis XV style, and the iron lock still has its original key. The wood has been bleached to a soft pale honey at some point in its life, the way so many French country pieces have been over the past century. Sylvie places it in a corner of a dining room with a stack of cloth napkins inside and a clay antique vessel of olive branches on top.

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