Depression-era cabinet

This roughly-finished wooden cabinet is a distinctive example of 'Depression-era' furniture. It features common materials normally discarded such as cotton reels, wood from a packing box, and recycled door knobs (or they could be finials from a curtain railing). The unpainted cabinet's six drawers have internal compartments.

This piece of furniture demonstrates the common and necessary practice of 'making-do-and-mending' that prevailed during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and also during other times of economic hardship and in parts of New Zealand where access to new building materials or manufactured goods was limited.

Like many other pieces of Depression-era furniture, this one is made motoring oil boxes packing boxes. The top is made from a wooden box that was labelled 'KALIF Motor Spirit Highly Inflammable VACUUM OIL COMPANY, PTY LTD' and the back is made from a wooden box that was labelled 'Vacuum Oil Company'.