Spanish Console

Heavy, dark, and built to outlast the house it stood in. Found in Montpellier but made in Catalonia, this 19th-century console is a low cupboard with two doors of raised panels under a carved frieze, its front gone near-black with age while the sides stayed pale. Catalan cupboards were made like fortresses, thick boards pegged and panelled to hold a household’s goods for generations, the carving along the top the maker’s one concession to beauty. Sylvie would use it as a console in a living room or a hall, a lamp and books on top and the doors closing over whatever needs to disappear.