A client who lived on a historical property asked us to examine a few unusual, wooden pieces she had discovered in the corner of her cellar. She had already taken them to local antique shops and heard a variety of theories as to what they may have formed originally — from a butter churn to a barrel. One "expert" speculated that the pieces didn't even go together. But we love a challenge and immediately set out to find what these oddly shaped pieces of wood once represented.

First we pieced together the meager fragments that we had, lining up nail holes and matching grains where the wood had split. We recognized the lines and style to be Federal, possibly dating back to Colonial times, and determined this delicate form was once a cradle. This narrowed down our photo reference search considerably when we consulted art and antique archives in Philadelphia. And there we found our answer — what we had were in fact, fragments of a

Colonial Federal Trundle Cradle. We then presented our pleased client with a complete report and the answer to her mystery.