Step Back Cupboard, True Antique Salesman Sample/Apprentice Piece stencil painted playing cards with some loss to the

with some loss to the red paint decorating the spine but the painted cartouche on the face just perfect

which stack perfectly to fill their perfectly preserved dovetailed box

where the silver of the tin shows through

but I've not been able to get it to engage

Step Back Cupboard, True Antique Salesman Sample/Apprentice Piece stencil painted playing cards with some loss to theI'm not very knowledgable about furniture, tabletop or full scale, but I do know, from looking at a whole lot of tabletop scale chests, that this is of a different ilk than most described as salesman samples; it is truly that, or an apprentice piece, not a piece of doll furniture, and a rare one in my experience for being what I think would correctly be called a step back cupboard, with three drawers below and glass doors encasing three shelves above.