Article: ANTIQUES; Movable (Whew!) Closets, With a Dutch Accent - New York Times

The heftiest status symbol for Dutch settlers in Colonial America, a massive cupboard called a kas or kast, reigned supreme in fashionable New York and New Jersey parlors throughout the 18th century. The larger the cupboard -- some were eight feet tall -- the more formidable the fortune of the family that owned it, or so it was thought. Filled with linens, porcelains, silver and the householder's gun, the kas (pronounced kaz) was kept locked, with the woman of the house in charge of the key. "Linens were so valuable that they were always locked away," said Peter M. Kenny, one of the three curators in charge of the exhibition "American Kasten: The Dutch-Style Cupboards of New York and New ...

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