Wisteria Puzzle Cabinet

Size:
36″ wide by 20″ deep by 70″ high
Materials:
Honduran Mahogany, Maple Burl, Amboyna Burl, Walnut Burl, Walnut, Sycamore, Olive Ash, and various marquetry woods
Description:

This Wisteria marquetry flower decorated puzzle cabinet was designed in collaboration with Robert Yarger (stickman puzzles) for a puzzle collector that was interested in a large cabinet with a sequentially solved puzzle system and a few forms of mechanical movement.

The mechanical work I do is inspired by the work of Abraham and David Roentgen, who specialized in highly complex mechanical furniture over a quarter millennia ago (1760-1790) for clientele that included Marie Antoinette, Empress Catherine II, and King Frederick William II.

As different parts of the puzzle system are solved two moving components automatically open revealing a variety of additional small puzzles to be solved.  The most complex of which is the magnetically activated clock mechanism that unlocks a series of drawers.

It may be obvious that the client is a fan of burl woods and we used a variety of them in the piece both on the outside and in several areas on the inside.  It was a challenge to use such a wide variety of materials in a manner that didn’t seem overwhelming in the final piece.

The YouTube video of this piece was created by my website designer Chad Thompson of Monkey C Media, thanks Chad.