Title
Food safe
Year/Period
Early 20th century
Region
Southeast Asia
Material
Dimension
Object size: H53.0 x W40.0 x D40.0 cm
Accession No.
2010-01349
Collection of
This is a food safe made up of a rectangular wooden box with a door on one side and fully netted on all four sides. There is a tiny hole in the net of one side. The roof of the box has a hook. It is painted a faint blue.Food safes were essential in Peranakan and generally, Southeast Asian kitchens in the 19th to early 20th centuries. They were used to store leftover food for future consumption. The safes were hung up by the hook in the ceiling to prevent rodents and insects from getting to them. Food safes decreased in popularity with the advent of the modern refrigerator after the war. Today, they are no longer sold and are rare on the market.
