Antique Sideboard

Louis XV GILT CONSOLE - ITALIAN GILTWOOD GIRANDOLES - FLEMISH CORNER CUPBOARD - WALNUT CHEST ON STAND - SMALL WALNUT BUREAU

A Louis XV GILT CONSOLE with pierced leaf-carved frieze,
in-scrolled legs carved with leaves and husks and joined
by a pierced stretcher centred by a cartouche, 2ft. 7in. high by 2ft. 8V2W.
wide (79cm. by 82.5cm.) mid-18th Century, green marble top.

A TULiPWOOD COMMODE stamped R. Roessle, with moulded brescia marble top,
the quarter-veneered tulipwood body quarter-banded in kingwood and with two drawers,
on cabriole legs with ormolu mounts, 2ft. 6lMn. high by 2ft. 3′/2in. wide (77cm. by 69cm.).

А CAPE DUTCH STINKWOOD OGEE-FRONTED CHEST
of three long drawers, with canted corners, on claw and
ball feet, 2ft. high by 3ft. 2in. wide (77cm. by
96.5cm.) circa 1750, restored.

A CAPE DUTCH STINKWOOD CORNER ARMCHAIR, the arched back curving around to form the arms with
caned splats and ring-turned baluster supports, the 187 A pair of gilt-metal Candlesticks with spiralling
caned seat on cabriole legs joined by ring-turned sconces, stems and bases, lOin. high (26cm.) circa 1750,
stretchers, circa 1750, with squab cushion.

A PAIR OF LOUIS XV GILT-METAL CANDLESTICKS,
with baluster stems and shaped circular bases, lO’Ain.
high (26cm.) mid-18th Century.

A GLASS CHANDELIER OF SIX S-SCROLL ARMS, the
double gourd-shaped stem also supporting spiral-twist
scrolls, 2ft. high by lft. 9in. wide (61cm. by 53cm.) circa
1750, probably Venetian, some drops later.

A DUTCH MARQUETRY STANDING CORNER CUP-
BOARD with serpentine front, the upper part with
a moulded comice and a pair of panelled doors with a slide below, the lower
part with a pair of panelled doors, on bail feet, 8ft. 5in. high (257cm.) mid-18th Century, inlaid

with
floral marquetry on an oak ground.

A PAIR OF ITALIAN GILTWOOD GIRANDOLES, each
tapering serpentine-topped plate with a cresting and side
pieces of rococo scrolls with flowerheads, each apron
with grotesque mask, 2ft. lin. high by Ift. 4lhin. wide
(63cm. by 42cm.) mid-18th Century, originally with
candle-arms.

A DUTCH PINE CUPBOARD with triangular broken
pediment above a pair of cupboard doors enclosing
shelves and drawers, above an ogee-fronted base with
three long drawers, 7ft. 7in. high by 5ft. wide (231cm. by
152cm.) circa 1760.

A PAIR OF DUTCH WALNUT AND MARQUETRY CHAIRS,
each curved solid vase splat inlaid with birds and
flowers partly in bone and with shaped supports, the shaped drop-in seats on
cabriole legs with pointed pad and waved H-stretchers, mid-18th Century.

A Louis XV KINGWOOD ETAGERE,
the elliptical top with a moulded border and inlaid with a
chequer banding, with a smaller conforming shelf below, on pierced trestle supports
joined by a crossbar, 2ft. 4in. high by 2ft. Win. wide (71cm. by 87cm.) circa 1770.

A SCANDINAVIAN CARVED OAK BOX inscribed with the date anno 174*
and with two sets of initiais, the hinged lid and sides incised
with geometrie roundels, /ft. 3% in. wide (40cm.) mid-18th Century.

AN ITALIAN NEO-CLASSICAL ALTAR CANDLESTICK
in gilt and silvered wood, 2ft. lOin. high (87cm.)
circa 1770, fitted for electricity.

A FLEMISH CORNER CUPBOARD, the pair of doors
painted with the Virgin kneeling with attendant angels
below draperies, 3ft. high by lft. llin. wide (92cm. by
58cm.) third quarter 18th Century.

A PAIR OF LOUIS XV CARVED WALNUT ARMOIRE
DOORS, each with two panels outlined by simple foliate
rococo carving, 5ft. llin. high by lft. 9in. wide (180cm. by
53cm.) circa 1760.

A WILLIAM AND MARY WALNUT-VENEERED CHEST
OF DRAWERS, the moulded top and three long drawers
inlaid with simple stringing, with panelled sides, 2ft. 9in.
wide (84cm.) circa 1690, base now altered and with later
bracket feet, height now 2ft. Hin (89cm.).

A WILLIAM IV WORK BOX, the whole covered in red/brown
leather, the coffered lid inset with a brass panel, enclosing a
fitted interior lined in blue silk, with a drawer below, with
carrying handles at the sides and on gilt-metal feet with
flowerheads, leaves and berries, 53Ain. high by ll3Ain. wide (153cm. by 29cm.) circa 1835.

AN OYSTER-LABURNUM AND ROSEWOOD-VENEERED
CABINET ON CHEST, the doors enclosing an interior fitted
with drawers surrounding a central cupboard with
further drawers inside, the base with two short and two
long drawers, raised on bracket feet, 4ft. Win. high by
3ft. 9in. wide (148cm. by 114.5cm.) extensively re-
constructed and restored.

A GEORGE I WALNUT CHEST ON STAND,
the moulded cornice above three frieze drawers and
three graduated long drawers with canted, fluted corners, the lower
part with one short drawer flanked by deep drawers and a curved apron,
on later cabriole legs, 5ft. 63Ain. high by 3ft.

A QUEEN ANNE WALNUT BUREAU CABINET, the
upper part with a moulded comice above two mirrored
doors engraved with an arch and flowerheads, with a
pair of candle-slides below, the lower part with a flap
and bookrest, enclosing a fitted interior with a well
above three dummy frieze drawers and two short and
two graduated long drawers, on later bun feet, 6ft. 8in.
high by 3ft. 3V4in. wide (204cm. by 100cm.) both parts circa
1710, but not originally together.

A SMALL WALNUT BUREAU, the Aap enclosing a
fitted interior and well above three graduated long
drawers, on later bracket feet, 3ft. lin. high by lft. lVhin.
wide (94cm. by 60cm.) extensively restored and reduced
inwidth.

A QUEEN ANNE WALNUT SIDE TABLE with a
moulded quarter-veneered crossbanded top, a cross-
banded drawer above a shaped apron and cabriole legs
with pad feet, 2ft. 3in. high by 2ft. Sin. wide (69cm. by
73cm.) circa 1710.

Antique Vicorian, Edwardian and 1920`s Sideboards
By 1860 the sideboard had followed the evolution of styles in much the same way as other Victorian furniture, with a few slight differences. From its original, Adam form, it became a heavier, end-pedimented piece made in sub-classical, usually Grecian, style with a heavy, drawered top connecting the two end pediments. Sometimes there was a gap between the two pediments, under the top like a large ‘kneehole’, sometimes this area was cupboarded in. The latter type, with cupboards, has been much preferred by the antique trade and is more expensive. Rococo forms of sideboard exist, but rococo seems to have been more used for the chiffonier or side cabinet intended for the drawing room. The dining room furniture was far more serious, heavier stuff, more suited to the grave atmosphere to be associated with eating. Chairs followed a similar pattern.
Commercial production continued to supply these heavy dining room sideboards and even carved oak versions in emulation of the famous ‘Chevy Chase’ piece, smothered with carved fauna and comestible fruit and vegetables, until the end of the century. In the 1870s the return to 18th century reproductions saw the re-introduction of the Adam form and the ‘Sheraton’ or late 18th/early 19th century versions of it. In Edwardian times some satinwood reproductions were made  even the William Morris Company produced them  which were quite good versions of the originals, with the possible exception that inlaid or painted decoration in the Adam style tended to be overdone. These pieces are elegant, however, and are now quite highly priced.
The Gothic reformers, the ‘art furniture’ boys, Godwin, the Arts and Crafts Movement, the Cotswold crafties and the ‘garden city socialists’ in their various turns, despised `commercial’ sideboards almost more than any other form
of furniture. To them the Victorian sideboard epitomised the vulgarity, the parvenu tastelessness, the crass greed and the ostentation of the rising middle class Philistine. They reacted to it in their various ways and the commercial manufacturers copied them all. Talbert produced his ‘Pet’ sideboard in Reformed Gothic. Godwin, with William Watt, produced his celebrated Anglo-Japanese versions, one of which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The art furniture boys laid the ebonising on thick, spindled the galleries, coved the tops and painted some of the panels in startling colours which contrasted with the ebonising. The Arts and Crafts
Movement went in for plain oak surfaces, flat-capped tapering columns, art nouveau beaten copper hinges with heart shapes and fretted holes in weepy shapes. The Cotswold crafties and the garden city socialists really didn’t like to get involved with sideboards at all. They preferred dressers, since dressers are more in the medieval tradition, more ‘country’ than the wealthily-inspired sideboard. The sideboards they produced are often really a form of dresser base or an adaptation of a simple dresser form or, in the case of Gordon Russell, a universal pedestal desk/dressing table principle used for sideboards.
By the 1900s the medieval oak taste had set in with a vengeance as well as the desire for 18th century reproduction. From about 1900 onwards the sideboard became subject to an extremely varied number of styles, some of them employed all on one piece. But the `Jacobethan’ mass production of post-1918 was probably the major feature and sideboards were produced to go with the bulbous-legged ‘refectory’ or draw-tables of cheap stained oak. The other rival would be a walnut ‘Queen Anne’ style which was probably slightly more expensive. Gradually overtaking them came a style now referred to loosely as ‘art deco’; modernistic, round-edged and ’streamlined’ with a few carved motifs stuck on.
SIDEBOARDS - 1860-1900
This section shows the contrast in styles to be found in English furniture over what was a very short period of forty years. From straightforward ‘Victorian’ mahogany, through Reformed Gothic, Aesthetic, and
Anglo-Japanese is a very drastic transition of styles, but that is what was made, at least by those in the `forefront of taste’.
A sideboard in mahogany with the low-arched panels which came into fashion in the 1840s and which continued to be made until the 1880s. This is a very simple version with serpentine shaping to the drawer fronts. 1840-1880
Another mahogany sideboard with classical pillars and cheap leaf-and-scroll carving around the mirror back. It is a type which, with dismemberment and reassembly, can be turned into a ‘Regency’ chiffonier by the adept converter.
A walnut sideboard in the severer lines of the 1860s with a galleried top incorporating turned spindles and finials. The inconsistent use of oval mirrors in conjunction with rectangular ones is disconcerting. The burr
walnut veneer is inlaid with boxwood and ivory stringing lines and formalised marquetry and there is a white marble top. 1860-1880
The characteristic early Victorian chiffonier-sideboard made from the 1840s onwards. Panelled doors with the flattened arch and ‘feather’ mahogany figures; ogee moulded drawer fronts; acanthus leaf carving; solid
plinth and carved curvy back. Cheaply made and mass produced; hated by all `progressive’ designers.
A carved oak sideboard of a design inspired by the ‘Chevy Chase’ type exhibited prominently in the mid-Victorian period. Carved oak (or mahogany) sideboards with large quantities of unfortunate fauna and flora suitable for gastronomy carved upon them became quite popular, even if expensive. It was a taste that continued despite the disapproving scowls of the Gothic reformers and subsequent progressives.
A Bruce Talbert ‘Pet’ sideboard made by Gillows in oak with characteristic carving of foliage, use of spindles in galleries and a quotation above.
An oak sideboard designed by Charles Eastlake (see Hints on Household Taste, Plate XI) showing the restrained version of Reformed Gothic with angled planking and incised mouldings so characteristic of the type.
There is a carved quotation in Latin across the top.
A simpler Reformed Gothic sideboard with tongued-andgrooved planking but with a pierced gallery above with four carved seated lions. c. 1880
Another oak sideboard showing a wealth of angled tongued-and-grooved planking and a carved panel of birds as well as painted panels in the Aesthetic Movement manner.
5,000+ Photo: Courtesy, Jeremy Cooper
1870-1880Wootton Patent Office
An ebonised Anglo-Japanese sideboard designed by E.W. Godwin (q.v.) of a type now exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Godwin’s use of Japanese design is discussed elsewhere on pages 27 and 28. What is important from a value point of view is that the piece exhibits a design trend towards the Modern Movement in its vertical and horizontal lines. It is thus, as a milestone in furniture history, that its value to suitable museums is extremely high.
Another ebonised Anglo-Japanese sideboard by E.W. Godwin. A buyer paid nearly 7,000 for this piece at Sotheby’s Belgravia in 1978. Why so much less than the previous example A telling point this  because it does not so clearly exhibit the horizontal and vertical lines which point the way to the designs of the Modern Movement. It is thus of less interest to museums as a furniture history milestone, even though it has great value as a piece by Godwin.
A characteristic Aesthetic Movement sideboard of ebonised and mahogany construction with a coved top with spindled gallery. The bevelled-edged mirrors, panelled construction and turning are all typical.
c.1880
SIDEBOARDS - 1900-1920
A rosewood inlaid sideboard which shows how, at the end of the century, the return to 18th century styles had affected commercial production. Indeed, this piece shows traces of the ‘Victorian Queen Anne’ style or
`bracket-and-overmantel’ style in the broken pediment and design of the upper half, yet it still has traces of a spindle-turned gallery and ‘pot board’ bottom shelf of the Aesthetic Movement. Yet the inlaid decoration is
‘Adam’ or ‘Sheraton’ and the piece would now be sold as ‘Edwardian Sheraton’. It is not quite as late as the Edwardian styles shown in later pages of sideboards, as the reader may note, however. 1890-1900
An odd oak sideboard of slightly progressive-cum-quaint associations in design. (The wavy-line pierced gallery is the ‘quaint’ part.) The photograph gives it a slightly asymmetric look, which is misleading. Probably by Liberty’s. 1890-1900
Six typical late Victorian /Edwardian sideboards of a type made in oak or walnut of the straight-grained American type. Mostly identified as to period by the bas-relief carving in panels or on pediments, and the use of a modified classical pediment so dear to the Edwardian heart. The common features to all are the large back mirrors with columns either side, drawers with cupboards under in the lower half and panelling to the cupboard doors, achieved by either fielding or mouldings.
1900-1914

SIDEBOARDS
About 1770-1915
Inlaid mahogany bow-fronted sideboard, about 1780-1790.
Auseful piece of dining-furniture comprising a number of drawers and cupboards for the storage of cutlery, table linen, condiments and so on, which evolved during the 1770s from the very grand side-table and pedestal ensembles first designed by Robert Adam. In the late-18th/ early-19thC, they often incorporated a plate-warmer, wine cooler, cistern or cellaret, hence their original name, `cellaret sideboard’. Occasionally a pot cupboard was included, sometimes set discreetly in one side.
Usually replaced in large houses around 1825 by vast serving tables accompanied by chiffoniers. In Victorian times, sideboards were less easily defined. They can be of dresser form, or a smaller chiffonier type; some best described simply as cabinets.
About 1770-1810: Standard form had a central drawer flanked either side by drawers
(one shallow, one deep), and a single cupboard; or one of each. Cupboards may have dummy drawer fronts. Central recess fronted by shaped or arched apron; its back either open or solid; sometimes the cupboard set half-way back. All cupboards may be tambour-fronted. Central cutlery drawer compartmented and lined with baize.
Most were bow- or serpentine-fronted; some semi-elliptical or straight. Thick, flat, over-hanging top with flush edges. Majority on six square-sectioned, tapering legs; sometimes eight. After 1800, legs were often turned with ring mouldings; sometimes reeded or fluted. Drawers flush with carcase when inlaid (edged with stringing or cross-banding); cockbeaded when simply veneered.
Later versions with brass back-rail, either to support plate, or to suspend splashback curtain. Occasionally fitted with adjustable candleholders.
About 1800-1850: Previous type (with turned legs) joined by pedestal sideboards with central shallow drawer retained, but sides extending to floor to form pedestal cupboards. Either carved (often paw) feet, or continuous plinth. By 1810 pedestal could extend upwards too, joined at rear by shaped wooden splashback. Separate wine cooler (now often missing) placed in central recess.
Majority in Grecian style; early Victorian plainer.
1850 onwards: Considerable variation. Made in all revival styles  Elizabethan, Gothic, Renaissance, Chippendale, Sheraton and Queen Anne. Many highly carved; some cheaply made and poorly executed. Later
Mahogany sideboard with brass back-rail, about 1800.
examples (of all types) sometimes with mirror at back (now usually removed).
Principally mahogany; occasionally satinwood. Rosewood during Regency and early Victorian periods. Occasionally walnut around 1850; birch or satin maple (to simulate satinwood) on cheaper reproductions towards 1900. Pine or mahogany for carcases; oak or mahogany for drawer linings. Satinwood and other light-coloured woods used for decorative inlay.
Standard methods employed; majority veneered. See CHESTS OF DRAWERS, p. 93, for drawer construction.
Watch out for alterations. The comonest include: I Removal of brass rails  look for filled holes at rear of top. 2 Reduction in depth  examine back for newly cut and stained timber, and look inside the carcase for cut-off drawer runners. If in original condition, the `wear’will stop at least 1/2 inch from the back. 3 Replacement of less saleable turned legs with square-sectioned ones. If correct, the legs will extend upwards to form the stiles of the carcase and the grain of the timber will be continuous. If wrong, the new join will be concealed either by a fine line of inlay, or by an applied astragal moulding, and the grain will not match above and below.
Watch also for quality Edwardian reproductions of Sheraton types. Their design may look authentic, but the veneer will be thin, and machine-cut; the dovetails, machine-cut, will look regular; and the legs will probably look too thin. The poorest of the reproductions will be recognizable by their lack of proportion and sometimes an odd combination of features.
1930s Art Moderne sideboard.
Restrained inlay of light-coloured woods until about 1810; mostly stringing lines; some fan shapes and oval paterae. Ebony or brass inlay of classical design in early 19thC.
Handles: Standard for their day (see p. 93). Bold lion’s mask ring handles especially popular after 1800, and on reproductions.
Stain or varnish followed by wax polish. French polish after about 1820. Dark stain on Victorian ‘Elizabethan’ and Renaissance. Art Furniture pieces ebonised.
VALUES
Prices for the best late-18thC inlaid sideboards in original condition are in five figures; post-1800 versions (with turned legs) about a quarter to half the price. Pedestal sideboardsnever very popular  even less. Plus points are decorative inlay or carving, small size and surviving interior fittings.
Regency pedestal sideboard, about 1810, mahogany with ebony inlay.

English Sideboards

In England, dining-room furniture only began to develop as functional purpose-made pieces from c.1730 onwards, with side tables made specifically for serving rather than merely displaying dishes. The first recognizable sideboards were contemporary with the work of the Adam brothers (the middle decades of the eighteenth century) and consisted of a heavy side table flanked by two pedestal cupboards topped with urns in the classical manner. These were ingenious all-purpose dining-room fittings, with knife urns, lead-lined
containers for keeping hot and cold water for washing glasses and cutlery, racks for hot plates, cellarettes for bottles and, frequently, pot-cupboards for the gentlemen’s after-dinner use.
From c.1770 the size of the sideboard became more manageable and the most common shape began to emerge: two deep drawers or cupboards (sometimes with drawers above), raised on legs, with a central frieze drawer above an arched or shaped apron. Many of them had a ’splash board’ at the back, or brass rails with pleated-silk panels, and brass candle-holders. It is Sheraton who is most often connected with the design of sideboards, although Hepplewhite, Shearer and George Smith all designed very similar pieces.
By about 1790 the most instantly recognizable and most copied shape for sileboards had become generally accepted. The interiors were fitted with many clever devices, including in some cases a heater beneath tinplate racks.
Signs of authenticity
1. Glossy, well-matched mahogany veneers on Honduras mahogany or imported Scandinavian red-pine carcases.
2. Grain of all legs continuing up to form sides of frame.
3. Grain of side carcase wood running horizontally.
4. Flush-edged top with good overhang, thicker than table top.
5. Back timbers unfinished and of same age and colour, showing gaps on joins where wood has shrunk.
6. Frieze drawer lined with baize and with original compartments.
7. No signs on inside bottom of carcase, which forms the flanking cupboards and drawers, of circular wear and scratchings where swing-out, fitted cellarettes have been removed.
8. Accumulation of dirt and patination around drawer
handles  good patination to insides of drawers.
9. Drawer bottom with timber running from side to side with central strengthening bearer.
10. Flush drawer fittings and handles with stamped brass decorated backplates.
11. Cockbeading edge to plainly veneered doors and drawers.
12. Undersurface edge of shaped apron veneered to match the edges of top serving surface.
13. Inner underframe of side sections either side of central arch visible and therefore plain veneered.
14. Signs of damage, scuffing to feet, particularly central ones.
Likely restoration and repair
15. Common in many variations is the massive sideboard cut down to more suitable sizes: many were over 6 ft long. Undersurface of overhang may
provide evidence. If fingers detect a ‘crack’ or break, check interiors of drawer fronts, central frieze drawer for newly made holes for handles without accumulation of dirt around them; examine underframe for evidence of cutting down.
16. On genuine smaller sizes, legs repaired where they have broken, or cut down where breaks have occurred on line with spade feet, and repair concealed by collar.
17. Added inlay and other decoration to original mahogany veneer. Harder to find material evidence, since ground veneer of this period often runs across whole surface, but style and proportions of later inlays are often quite wrong.
18. Aprons replaced with more elaborate design, or with later inlaid corner-pieces.