Curious Cabinets for Terrible Teeth
November 10, 2014 11:15 AM Subscribe
If you were a Victorian dentist, only recently raised from the barbarity of barbering, and needed some place to store all those picks and pokers and pliers and porcelain where they wouldn't panic your patients, while giving an air of aristocratic and academic authority, how might you outfit your office with adequate opulence to signify stability and sincerity? A top-of-the-line dental cabinet.
Damn but those are some cabinets.
posted by Segundus at 11:57 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Segundus at 11:57 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
For those who are interested in horrifying picks and pryers and happen to travel through Upper Austria I can recommend the free visit through the Zahnmuseum / Museum of the History of Dentistry in Linz.
Also, besides cabinets and models of dental problems and tiny drills they usually have free sample tubes of toothpaste.
posted by pipstar at 11:59 AM on November 10, 2014
Also, besides cabinets and models of dental problems and tiny drills they usually have free sample tubes of toothpaste.
posted by pipstar at 11:59 AM on November 10, 2014
Damn but those are some cabinets.
In the days before anaesthetics only exquisite dovetail joints and the finest joinery had the power to sufficiently distract patients as teeth were being ripped from their heads.
posted by sobarel at 12:07 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
In the days before anaesthetics only exquisite dovetail joints and the finest joinery had the power to sufficiently distract patients as teeth were being ripped from their heads.
posted by sobarel at 12:07 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
I was looking for a jewelry box and stumbled across someone using a small traveling dental case as one, and then lost like three hours of my life to admiring vintage dental cabinetry. Now I need a dental cabinet AND a hobby to store within it. It'll be so awesome!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:35 PM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:35 PM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]
There was a guy selling these things at a flea market I went to a few years ago and I stood in his stall opening and closing tiny drawers for fifteen heavenly minutes. I have been desperately trying to concoct a reason I might need one ever since. The best thing I've come up with so far is that it would give much-needed gravitas to my vast and scattered collection of crap: corks, twist ties, little shells, marbles, found songbird eggs, movie ticket stubs, fortune cookie fortunes... each category of worthless junk... with its own... dedicated... drawer... Such bliss to have everything pointless in my life sorted, once and for all.
posted by Don Pepino at 1:06 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 1:06 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
MetaFilter: everything pointless in my life sorted, once and for all.
posted by The Bellman at 2:42 PM on November 10, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by The Bellman at 2:42 PM on November 10, 2014 [4 favorites]
These are lovely and would really upscale my junk room. Conversely, I really don't need to have a curious cabinet containing a complete collection of crap.
posted by BlueHorse at 2:52 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by BlueHorse at 2:52 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Well, you don't have to put crap in it. You could store your ill-gotten gains in it! Or you could put it in your massive, two-fridge kitchen with the acres of beautiful gleaming butcherblock countertop and the dedicated marble fudge slab and use it as your spice cupboard. One drawer just for saffron...
Evidently on some prehistoric level owning something with a million tiny little drawers signifies huge wealth to me. I have not "unpacked" this, yet.
posted by Don Pepino at 3:08 PM on November 10, 2014
Evidently on some prehistoric level owning something with a million tiny little drawers signifies huge wealth to me. I have not "unpacked" this, yet.
posted by Don Pepino at 3:08 PM on November 10, 2014
MeMail me if you truly, truly need to purchase one of these. Serious inquiries only. [ominous thunderclap]
posted by overeducated_alligator at 3:45 PM on November 10, 2014
posted by overeducated_alligator at 3:45 PM on November 10, 2014
A dollhouse dental cabinet. "For dentists with children as patients." Good lord.
Do you see, little Agnes? Do you see the little house? Who do you think lives there?
No. There are no dolls here! See: only glinting sharp things live inside.
Things that bite. And things that shine. Only they may live in my little gabled house, Agnes.
By the by: have you neglected your brushing?
posted by Iridic at 4:39 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Do you see, little Agnes? Do you see the little house? Who do you think lives there?
No. There are no dolls here! See: only glinting sharp things live inside.
Things that bite. And things that shine. Only they may live in my little gabled house, Agnes.
By the by: have you neglected your brushing?
posted by Iridic at 4:39 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
I need to know what the Victorians did for the most important piece of furniture at the dentist's: the humorous but not too humorous poster which is stuck to the ceiling for you to stare at throughout the proceedings. Did they stoically manage without, or perhaps have something edifying instead?
posted by ambrosen at 4:40 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by ambrosen at 4:40 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
Don Pepino: "he best thing I've come up with so far is that it would give much-needed gravitas to my vast and scattered collection of crap: corks, twist ties, little shells, marbles, found songbird eggs, movie ticket stubs, fortune cookie fortunes... each category of worthless junk... with its own... dedicated... drawer... Such bliss to have everything pointless in my life sorted, once and for all."
You're saying the words that are in my heart!
ambrosen: "I need to know what the Victorians did for the most important piece of furniture at the dentist's: the humorous but not too humorous poster which is stuck to the ceiling for you to stare at throughout the proceedings. Did they stoically manage without, or perhaps have something edifying instead?"
Found these this morning while researching the post, so maybe these!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:07 PM on November 10, 2014
You're saying the words that are in my heart!
ambrosen: "I need to know what the Victorians did for the most important piece of furniture at the dentist's: the humorous but not too humorous poster which is stuck to the ceiling for you to stare at throughout the proceedings. Did they stoically manage without, or perhaps have something edifying instead?"
Found these this morning while researching the post, so maybe these!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:07 PM on November 10, 2014
Now I need a dental cabinet AND a hobby to store within it.
Why not use the dental cabinet for your tooth collection?
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:37 AM on November 11, 2014
Why not use the dental cabinet for your tooth collection?
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:37 AM on November 11, 2014
I love cabinets with lots and lots of tiny drawers, so I totally did not need to know of another source of these types of cabinets that I could google and drool over and not buy because my apartment is too small for cabinets with lots and lots of tiny drawers.
posted by xingcat at 7:48 AM on November 11, 2014
posted by xingcat at 7:48 AM on November 11, 2014
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posted by KathrynT at 11:31 AM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]