A Fine Edwardian Museum Cabinet on Chest by Frederick Sage and Co, Show Case Makers to King Edward VII, c.1910

A Fine Edwardian museum cabinet on Chest by Frederick Sage and Co, Show Case Makers to King Edward VII, c.1910 Designed as a bespoke item, the piece consists of a mahogany chest of specimen drawers with central cupboard containing a mechanism that allows the display case on the top to be rotated and lifted as required. The recessed campaign-style handles on the piece are all signed by F. Sage and Co of London. Frederick Sage and Company was founded in 1860 by the Suffolk carpenter Frederick Sage in conjunction with the builder Peter Panter. The firm was successful remarkably quickly and by the Edwardian period had emerged as the premier shopfitters in England, working on a great variety of buildings from the grandest department stores to small local concerns. They provided a full fitting service, making bespoke items for each commission and even supplying the shopfronts themselves when appropriate. In London alone, Sage was involved in the production of shop fittings for Harrods and Dickins and Jones. The firm also had branches abroad and were responsible for interiors in Germany, France and South Africa amongst others. The firm’s first retail location in England was in Hatton Garden leading to lasting links with the jewellery trade, the firm supplying many of the best jewellers of the time with display cabinets, vitrines and secure display tables. The firm then moved to the Grays Inn Road. By 1912 their work was featured in an article from Country Life, where it is mentioned that their work was fitted in the plateroom of Sandringham, by Royal Appointment of His Majesty the late King Edward. They also supplied cabinets, show-cases, iron cases etc. to multiple museums, most notably the museum of the Hon. Walter Rothschild at Tring, the British Museum and the Natural History Museum.