Jan and John Maggs Antiques

The Tale of the Sixty-three Inch Court Cupboard

If you've been in our shop during the past year, you've probably noticed a large, 17th century English oak court cupboard. Although it's small -- as court cupboards go -- it is a single piece and just a little too tall to fit through the doors of our van or our small, enclosed trailer. It's also heavy. Consequently, it has never gone with us to a show and, has only been seen by the relatively few people who have visited our shop. When we recently decided to take it to a show, where it would be the focal point of our booth, we knew that our greatest challenge would be to figure out a way to get it there.

UHaul.com conveniently lists door openings for their fleet of trailers. "This is going to be easy," we thought. However, we quickly determined that their largest trailer has the same size door as our smaller one. A rental truck would be required.

For information on rental trucks, the UHaul website was less helpful. Although we were able to determine that any of their larger trucks would serve our needs, details of a round-trip rental were not available through the web. We would need to phone or visit a local franchise.

We called the Northampton UHaul outlet, where we learned that round-trip rentals -- pickup and return to the same location -- were restricted to twenty-four hours. We needed to load the truck on Friday and return it on Monday. This sounded to us like a three-day rental. What would it cost?

"Sorry," we were told. "We don't do it that way." The voice on the phone then explained that we would need to rent one-way from Northampton on Friday and then return the truck on Saturday to a franchise near our destination. Then, sometime during the show on Sunday, one of us would need to leave the show, get to the dealership somehow , and pick up another truck for the return trip. This truck would then be returned to Northampton on Monday morning. This was not an acceptable option.

We decided to carry the court cupboard on our small utility trailer. Although it offers no means of enclosing the cupboard, if we wrapped it in packing blankets, enclosed the whole package in a tarpaulin, and tied it to the trailer, we'd be alright -- if the weather cooperated.

At about this point, we realized that the trailer was in the field behind the barn. When we had left it there in September, the grass was trimmed and the ground was soft. It was now buried in two feet of snow and ice, and its tires and hitch were frozen to the ground. After two hours of shoveling and tugging, we managed to free it. We towed it to our driveway, where we removed the sides so that the court cupboard would lie flat on its back for the journey. This was the moment we noticed that the fenders were about six inches higher than the trailer bed. As the court cupboard was both wider and taller than the space between the fenders, it would be impossible to transport the cupboard flat on its back.

After considering the problem over lunch, we decided to build up the bed of the trailer to the height of the fenders. We set to work with four-by-eight timbers and plywood, and within an hour, we were able to load, wrap, and secure the court cupboard. We left for the show feeling relieved and exhausted.

We reached our destination without mishap, arriving around 7:00 p.m. We unloaded our merchandise, which included six additional pieces of furniture and the customary allotment of smalls, paintings, and props. When we retired to our hotel room shortly before midnight, our booth was ready to be viewed by the next morning's buyers, and the court cupboard stood proudly against the center of the back wall.

On Saturday, day one of two, the court cupboard received quite a bit of attention. It had the distinction of being both one of the oldest and one of the largest pieces in the show. Many knowledgeable shoppers praised it for its form, decoration, and patina, while many other, less expert visitors asked serious and interesting questions. But at the end of the day no one had indicated any serious interest in owning it.

Shortly after noon on Sunday, the final day of the show, a member of a local historical society came to the booth and exclaimed, "So, this is the court cupboard everyone is talking about!" For decades The Society had displayed a 17th-century court cupboard in its museum. The cupboard had been there on loan from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and had recently been recalled. The Society was anxious to replace it.

During the next two hours we spoke with several members of the Society's Board of Directors, who had been asked to come to the show to inspect the piece that might fill the vacant wall. As each visiting member expressed admiration, our optimism grew -- as did theirs. The members of the Board appeared to be in agreement about the appropriateness of the cupboard. One question remained: would it fit in the available space?

A member of the Board was dispatched to the museum. When she returned an hour later with a glum expression on her face, we knew immediately that we would all be disappointed. The court cupboard was seven inches too long.

When the show ended at 4:00 that afternoon, we began the frustrating task of repacking. Once again the court cupboard was carefully wrapped and secured to the trailer. Fortunately, the snow that was predicted for the evening remained but a threat until after we had backed the trailer into our barn in Conway.

The court cupboard is once again in our showroom. After the labor and worry of transporting it a great distance, it is unlikely that it will accompany us to another show. Rather, it will await a buyer who needs a beautiful and commanding piece of 17th century oak to fill a space no narrower than sixty-three inches.

For more pictures of and details about the sixty-three inch court cupboard, click this thumbnail. 

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