Big display case...

[hosman321]

I have had this thing for a few months. It's pretty beat up but I'm curious how old it is. I turned it into a finch aviary for a couple months, but now it's not one. I'll take close up pics of it when the birds wake up in the morning. It has thin, kinda wavy glass. A little distorted to look through. Not much else to say about it. It's a little over 8 feet long. It's a huge pain to have in a 912 Square Foot house. And a huge pain to move but I just HAD to have it. Of course. It will be cool if it's at least from about the 40's. I paid $60. It's probably worth what I paid or less! I'm just curious on age. I'll take more detailed pics in a few hours. Excuse the messy house, we had to throw everything everywhere just to get it through the door! The front of it is two 4 foot glass pieces, this is the back.

[railman44]

Very good property.  Usually, they sat on a marble stand or had wooden legs.  The straight tappered legs could be easily fabricated.  Worth much more than the 60 bucks you paid.  Very easy to restore since the glass is easily removable.  Doll collectors to Buddy L collectors and everything inbetween are always on the lookout for those.

[cogar]

Yup, that is a standard size store "display case", pre 1960's at least. Don't think 40'ish though, but maybe. They normally had 2 shelves in them, a narrow 1 and a wide 1, that each rested on 3 moveable brackets that were inserted into "slotted" metal strips that were affixed to the 3 upright braces of the back side (2 corner, 1 center). Yours is easily worth $100+. Antique shops, pawn shops, single proprietor shops, etc. are always needing display cases.

[D&b antiques]

I can see some oak frameing. some where between the 40's & 1960's  as Railman mentioned. it would be in demand. I'am located about 500 miles north of Cogar.

Country setting, but Big city's on both sides. about 30 miles away. Auction value would be in the $300.00 Dollar range. you could double your money.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Neat idea to turn it into a finch aviary! There's so many things you could do with it.

Guys, I'm curious, how is it that it would have wavy glass if it dates from the 40's to the 60's? Although style-wise, earlier display cases would have had solid tops, rather than glass, right? Did they still use old glass-making methods in the 50's?

This site claims wavy glass would indicate an older manufacturing process where the glass was rolled out:
http://tafkac.org/science/glass.flow/glassmaking.html

This one explains glass making a little more thoroughly:
http://www.thehomeinspector.com/Clients/OldGlass.html

[KC]

The questions here is, "Is the glass wavy or just distorted?"

[hosman321]

I wish I knew how to visually tell the difference between all the glass types. 
And it's too hard to try to get a pic of the glass. I guess all I could say is that it's distorted, kind of a rippling effect rather than just cloudy or hard to see through. How could I tell if it was just distorted?

I tried to get pics, but there isn't much to take pics of. It's not like it's fancy or anything. It would be nice if I could get pics of the underneath, but I have bird cages on top with birds on eggs so it's not really feasable right this moment.

[hosman321]

Here's some pics from when it was an aviary. 

[railman44]

I hate to be the fly in the ointment but I think it's much older than the '40's.  Upon closer observation, it looks like it has stubby legs.  I wish I could find one for 60 bucks!

[hosman321]

I wish I could get a pic of the legs, but they are really short and just kind of sink down into the carpet. They are about 1"-1 1/2" tall and are just simple stubby things.

[D&b antiques]

I will stick too the 40's. I can see some ply wood. which would be common too that era. Wavy glass or not is not going too change the value. ply wood could be replacement wood.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Looks VERY cool as a finch environment!! What a neat idea! You said you don't have them in there anymore? Were they having trouble flying into the glass or with ventilation or something?

[hosman321]

They flew into the glass maybe once or twice, never did again.
It was just really hard to keep clean and with it being so low to the ground, they freaked out when people walked in the room cause we towered above them. They didn't feel safe. I was going to put it up on a tall stand but just decided to take them out.

[cogar]

I'am located about 500 miles north of Cogar.

D&B, if due North that would put you close to Erie. I’ve traveled that way many times, spent 20 years east of Syracuse on the outskirts of Utica before moving back to WV.

Tales, most all earlier display cases were glass, glass, glass – including the tops, with just enough wood framing to hold the glass in place. Like in this Google picture.

 
And I am going to stick to my post-1940 guess because for a display case it looks like a “new” one to me, and my reasons are:

1. I can’t see a cross-brace in the center of the top.
2. The wood is all “straight cuts” and 90 degree corners, which is very unlike pre-1940 cabinetry.
3. The wood doesn’t have an “age” look to it.
4. It has legs.

[waywardangler]

The cross brace in the center of the top is visible in the very first photo (enlarge it).  The brace is under the center of the glass.  The top wood strip is missing? where the two pieces of top glass meet.

I do not see any plywood.  The bottom may be plywood due to its' grain pattern but I do see any edge plies on the available closeups. It may also be edge glued fir boards to make up the width.  I see an oak cased frame with what appears to be fir in non-customer visible locations like the back sliding door frames and interior strips/braces/case.  The closeup of the corner joinery shows the two woods used.

I would expect it to be raised with a kick plate like on kitchen base cabinets and not have feet. The shortness of the feet leads me to believe they were added.  This should have set on a base to raise it above the level of foot traffic.  With only 1 1/2" off the ground and the narrow wood base strip, someone's boot would have taken care of the lower glass years ago when it was originally used in a store.

The wood shows age to me (a nice golden yellow patina to the oak) and I would guess 40s or early 50s.  A lot of cases after this went to lighter woods and metal.  I definitely remember the light or blond cases in Kresge's and Woolworth's and I think most of those were from the 50s and 60s.

It is a nice case for someone with room to for it.