Icebox

Description

A large pine chest with dovetail joints, a faceted sloping bottom draining to the front, and a 1/4" diameter laid rope set into the top edges of the sides which serves as a sealing gasket for the lid. The lid is white pine as well and it has cleats on its front and ends to hold the lid in place on the chest. Hinge frame for center door is badly decayed in back around iron butt hinges that are surface mounted. Hinges appear to be replacements for earlier mortised hinges whose mortises rotted out. A 15" x 21 1/8" door covers an access in the center of the top. The entire box, inside and out, is painted yellow.

Notes

For more on the Shakers' harvesting of ice, see blog post: https://shakerml.org/ready-cool-milk-broth-necessity-ice/