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Bush pantry
DesignedSummary
Object No.
92/305Object Statement
Food safe (bush pantry), wood / metal, maker unknown, probably Queensland, Australia, c. 1930Physical Description
Metal 44 gallon oil drum with top and base, converted to a food safe. Three tiers of drum have squares cut in sides to make openings for home-made drawers. Painted blue. The top tier contains 3 large drawers, trapezoid shape with curved front, made by folding and crimping metal sheets and held together with metal pins. Each drawer has circular, wooden knob screwed into centre of each. Middle tier has 12 small drawers similar to those above, one has handle missing. Bottom tier has one curved door, hinged with perforated wire mesh insert, wooden knob handle and flat plat lock on inside. Interior of base is empty. Bung in place in base of drum. Internal construction - inside on 3 levels are metal runners, bolted to a metal ring in centre through which the tube of the stand passes. Each drawer is hooked onto the runner by a flat metal plate screwed to the base of the drawer. Top drawers have metal plates bolted to the top to act as stoppers.Cylindrical, upright metal tube, painted white, set into another wider tube the ends of which have been cut and splayed out to form 4 metal feet in a cross formation. There is a square, flat metal plate at the bottom of the narrower tube with 4 holes in it on which the safe sits.
Marks
Top, chalk mark "62", Top, Moulded "[illeg.]OYCO" / "185[illeg.]26". In black on front of large drawer "SUGAR"Short URL
https://ma.as/126875Dimensions
Height
890 mmWidth
610 mmProduction
Designed
Made
Notes
The food safe was probably designed in Queensland, Australia. Sometimes people went to elaborate lengths to imitate a commercial object. The extraordinary bush pantry converted from a 44-gallon drum appears to have been inspired by a 'Rotary Kitchen Canister' advertised in Anthony Horderns' 1923 mail-order catalogue. (The price which exceeded the average weekly wage, was no doubt prohibitive.)The safe was probably made in Queensland, Australia, Its construction involved cutting, folding, shaping and soldering 16 tapered, rotating drawers, all attached to a central pipe. The skill needed suggested that it was undertaken by a sheet metal worker whose normal farm work would have involved making water tanks and roofing.
Note on object file from Graham Cornall "Memories" (no other publication information) says "Around 1920 Metters of Sydney manufactured the original revolving pantry." It is implied that this safe was copied from the original design.
A further note on the blue file from the catalogue of "Bush toys and furniture 4 July - 2 September 1990, Powerhouse Museum Stage 1" by Ann Stephen, curator, Industrial and domestic life, and Caroline Lorentz, assistant curator: "Sometimes people went to elaborate lengths to imitate a commercial object. The extraordinary bush pantry converted from a 44-gallon drum appears to have been inspired by a 'Rotary Kitchen Canister' advertised in Anthony Horderns' 1923 mail-order catalogue. (The price which exceeded the average weekly wage, was no doubt prohibitive.)"
Notes from an article published in 2000:
The rotating canister pictured in the Anthony Hordern's catalogue was an up-market variation on the traditional food safe .. The rotating canister had drawers for dry food in the upper half and a meat safe at the bottom. "Every receptical is flat, ant and vermin proof,' proclaimed the brochure.
With only the illustration to go on, the anonymous craftsman set about duplicating the expensive model with bits of metal that could be salvaged locally. The starting point was an oil drum, already the right shape and size.
Taking iron offcuts and steel from flattened kerosene cans, he cut folded and crinkled them into shape, holding the pieces together with metal pins. Then he fixed runers from a central tube - made from a length of agricultural water pipe - to the wall of the drum. The bottom thrid of the drum was fitted with a door with a wire mesh panel to allow cooling air to circulate around any fresh meat inside.
The real thing was coated with hygienic white enamel. In the bush, blue paint had to do.
Ref: Stephanie Pain, Opinion histories - Any old iron.., New Scientist, 25 March 2000 pp44-45
History
Used
Owned
Notes
Collected by Lord McAlpine in the late 1980s.Source
Credit Line
Purchased 1992Acquisition Date
7 April 1992Cite this Object
Harvard
Bush pantry 2021, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 2 August 2021, <https://ma.as/126875>Wikipedia
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