Cabinet

The Ypres Museum has three beautiful cabinets from the seventeenth century. These are luxury items in which wealthy people stored their valuable small objects and documents. They were a speciality of Antwerp and found eager buyers all over Europe.
One of these pieces of furniture comes from the former Belle almshouse. The other two were donated to the city in 1934 through the Edouard Vandevyver bequest. In 2019, the three cabinets will be examined and restored. The smallest and most austere was the first to be restored. It recently returned after thorough professional treatment. The restorer's research revealed that work had already been carried out on the cabinet in the nineteenth century. At that time, restorers replaced a number of worn parts.
Cabinet makers used only the best and most valuable materials. That is why only the wealthy could afford one. The restored piece is made of ebony, black pine, rosewood, ivory and tortoiseshell.