Secret Box
Pandora’s box in miniature
Secret Box
During my free time as a student in the furniture design department at the Danish Design School, I made this box to hone my craftsmanship. For a while, the many hours I spent in the workshop earned me the nickname Gepetto, Pinocchio’s woodcarver father from the old Disney animation film.
The Secret box only gradually reveals its seven hidden compartments. First, the top box can be lifted off. When the lid is removed, each part reveals an insert. The inserts have loose lids, but the middle one can only be opened by turning the knob, which is otherwise used to lift out the insert. Under the bottom tray, there is a secret bottom that can be lifted up when you push on one side. The top part of the box additionally has four hidden matchbox-sized drawers with miniature dovetail joints. All the materials are small scraps from previous projects. The dimensions of the ebony pieces in particular were decisive for the appearance of the box with the horizontal bands.
INSPIRATION: SECRET CABINETS, ROSENBORG CASTLE, COPENHAGEN · DENMARK
Ever since antiquity, cabinetmakers have included secret compartments in furniture, often as a discreet way of safeguarding valuables and documents. A tradition for showpiece cabinets with secret compartments developed in the German city of Augsburg during the 16th and 17the centuries.
The cabinet shown above was made by Melchior Baumgartner around 1655–59. Later, during the 18th century, the master cabinetmaker David Roentgen created mechanical cabinets with ingenious hidden functions, taking this fascinating practice to a new level that remains unsurpassed to this day. In a special guided tour of Rosenborg Castle and The David Collection for members of the Danish Cabinetmakers Association, I was able to explore the royal showpiece cabinets and study all the intricate mechanisms, secret compartments and hidden double bottoms. This was a great experience, as you are not usually allowed to open or touch these cabinets.
Exhibited:
MASTERPIECES: 20th-Century Danish Cabinetmaking, Kronborg Castle, Elsinore, 2000,
JAPANOMETRY: Galerie Maria Wettergren, Paris, 2015
OFFCUT/RECUT: Officinet, Copenhagen, 2026
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