I'm in the early planning stages for a project that will essentially be a recreation of an "Amberg's Patent Letter File" cabinet I ran across while my wife was craft/quilt supply shopping. The only good thing about those stores: they quite often have some very nifty furniture. This was was rescued from an old hardware store and still had drawer labels like "cement" and "manure". Beautiful quartersawn red oak and, although it's obvious why we've moved from flat file storage to hanging files, an attractive, versitile design. Also: not for sale. "Maybe for $20,000," the owner said. I don't blame her, really.
Anyway, the thing about these drawers is that they don't have a back. There's a sprung clip that holds the papers down when you slide the drawer in. Any idea if this sort of thing is available or what else might work?
In answer to the question "Why not just put a back on the drawer?" Well, I'm not sure why *they* didn't (maybe just because it's easier to pull the file that way?), but the way this shop was using theirs was an impressive demonstration of why my wife wouldn't want one. You can slide the drawers in backwards and have a little display shelf sticking out.
I have some pictures on the digital camera of the actual specimen, but haven't uploaded them yet. The (near as I can tell) exact same drawer design, with a clear view of the hardware I'm looking for, can be seen at