19th c. Bonnetière Cupboard

The bonnetière got its name from what it was built to hold, the tall lace bonnets a Frenchwoman wore, kept upright in a cupboard made narrow and high to fit them. Found in Le Perche and dating to the 19th century, it is tall and slim, a single paneled door opening on a full run of shelves, all in bare, weathered wood with its old iron key still in the lock. A cupboard this narrow was a Norman and Breton idea, tall enough for a headdress and slim enough to fit a small room, and once the bonnets went out of fashion it held the linens and the good clothes instead. Sylvie stands it in the corner of a bedroom, its narrow height filling the space between a window and a wall, the shelves inside kept for linens and folded sweaters.