Somebody put a flag on this one before they ever put it on a wall. A small round badge, an American flag under glass in a gold ring, sits dead center in the peaked crown of our newest arrival, a 1920s wall-mount medicine cabinet in dark stained wood with its glass door and both hanging rings still in place.
The wall medicine cabinet is a very specific piece of American domestic history. In the 1910s and 1920s, indoor plumbing arrived in ordinary houses faster than bathrooms were built to hold it, so a small case went up over the washstand and took on the job a whole vanity does now. Iodine, camphor, court plaster, a shaving mug, a bottle of something bitter your grandmother swore by. All of it lived behind one little door.
This one was made to be looked at as well as opened. The crown is cut in a shallow gable, a nod to the Colonial Revival taste that ran right through the decade, and the door is glazed rather than paneled so the shelves show. Inside, two glass shelves divide the case into three tiers over a warm amber back. The hardware is the good kind of small: stamped and pierced hinge plates, a slim thumb latch worn bright from years of thumbs, and a screw eye set into each top corner. The finish carries its century honestly, with a soft sheen across the top and a scuff or two up on the peak.
You do not have to fill it with medicine, either. A case this size is happy holding perfume bottles, small pottery, pocket watches, thimbles, or a row of spice tins in a kitchen. Hang it by the back door for keys and sunglasses, or over a desk, where it can keep all the small things that never quite have a home.
Come see it in person at Pollyanna’s Antiques in downtown Mt. Clemens. We are open Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 to 4, and this one is already looking for a wall.