
Mel and I purchased this bar years ago from The Antique Company in Sacramento. We fell in love with it the moment we saw it in the front window of the store. We put it in storage and forgot about it until recently.
We were able to find out some info about this piece from speaking with the store owner of The Antique Company. He said it came from a New York hair salon that was in business for many years. Unfortunately, he did not know the name of the hair salon. This was actually where the customers would pay. The drawer shown has an area for coin and cash. I dig that super cool art deco bakelite handle with metal circular accents!!!
Imagine how many women stood in front of this counter to pay for hairdos for weddings, funerals, proms so on and so forth. Think of the women who left this counter with a new confidence because of a stylish new hairdo. I love the circle accents on the lower cabinet.
It’s always fantastic to learn about the history of an item that you’ve acquired. It helps establish a more personal connection to the item. Though this used to be a counter to pay for beauty services, we think it lends itself to becoming a bar. I recently assembled it and cleaned it all up to make it more presentable.
I plan to stock the glass display cases with cool barware items from that era.
I had to paint the cream areas again and redo all the silver trim. The original paint was flaking off and the trim was beat to hell so it had to be redone.
You can load the display cases through these doors on each side. I imagine when this was used in the beauty salon they put all the new products in there to entice customers. Spontaneity purchases!
The original hardware cleaned up really well. All the hardware has an art deco feel and seem to match. I’m sure this cabinet and counter combo wasn’t produced by a company, but was more than likely a custom piece. We are so happy to give it a new home and to have it as part of our collection.