Paper, Post, and a Mother's Love: A Stationary Cabinet’s Second Life

Some people search for antique treasures with a plan. Others stumble upon the perfect piece by instinct. For one of our clients, Jessica Sarley, it was both: a meaningful gift, a practical solution, and a love letter to her family's past and future, all wrapped into one.

The item? A 19th-century English Walnut Stationary Cabinet.

Jessica first spotted it in one of our auctions and instantly knew it belonged in the 1908 Folk Victorian home she shares with her mother. “It was a natural fit,” she said. “It matched the house, but more importantly, it matched us.”

She gifted the cabinet to her mother as an early Mother’s Day present. Not because it was fancy, but because it was right. Her mother, an avid antique collector, saw the gesture for what it truly was: a tribute. The cabinet now holds their mail, bills, and important papers, quietly doing its job in the corner of their dining room while carrying the weight of something much deeper.

Jessica and her mother have been collecting vintage and antique pieces together for the past 2.5 years, ever since losing her father. “Some of the best things in life are old, loved, rescued, and repurposed,” she says. “If I can save and salvage the history of an antique item and bring it to life again, then I consider that a life well spent.”

The stationary cabinet is more than furniture. It's a container for connection, memory, and love, between mother and daughter, between past and present.