Created to house foodstuffs and protect them from vermin, insects, and curious children, pie safes were a regular feature of the nineteenth-century Southern American home before they were replaced by ice boxes and modern refrigerators. This example features punched tin panels installed in the cabinet’s doors and sides, designed to allow for limited air circulation and decorated with urn, candlestick, heart, and sunburst motifs that connect it to Eastern Tennessee. Because the environment was often swarming with bugs, many Southern pie safes were even placed on small containers of oil to prevent ants from climbing up the legs.