Antique Sideboard

SIDEBOARDS  reproduction, 1890-1930: ‘Jacobean’ oak varieties
The ‘Jacobean’ style was popular well before the onset of the standard ‘Tudor’ dining room of the 1920s and 1930s. By the 1890s the popularity of medievalism had brought out a surge of ‘old oak’ manufacture.
Commercially produced sideboards of the period simply reflect the desire to satisfy this trend.
An oak sideboard of almost standard top design, except that the prevailing columns on either side of the mirror are twist turned. The drawer fronts are moulded and the door panels are fielded. The piece has a
pot-board stretcher beneath and bulbous turned front legs in imitation of Elizabethan types. 1900-1910
Again a variation of standard design at the top but this time the cupboard doors are on either side of three central drawers and have geometric mouldings on them. Twist-turned legs, with square section stretchers, end in bun feet. 1900-1910
A lower back without mirror  the start of the move towards lighter furniture for lower ceilings, perhaps. Actually a piece designed in emulation of a court cupboard, with a dominating, overhanging top moulding with big, turned finial suspended under each end. Doors and panels are geometrically moulded and, in the cases of the two end doors, fielded as well. 1900-1915
A very interesting oak sideboard in an amalgam of ‘Olde English’ styles with inlays in boxwood (or holly) and a darker wood, perhaps ebony. The geometrically moulded drawer fronts and back panels are ‘Jacobean’ in
design, emulating oak chests of the 1670-1690 period and the bobbin-turned double-column front legs and stretchers are taken from lighter furniture of the 1680-1700 period, such as gatelegs and side tables. The inlays, with the Prince of Wales’ feathers motifs, are quite 19th century in inspiration and the checked boxwood-and-ebony stringing lines are of the type favoured by designers of the 1890s to 1920s, such as Waals and the Barnsleys, although such lines were used in the 18th century also. The occasional square sections in the bobbin turning of the stretchers are an erroneous diversion, since such square sections, in the original period, were only used at the joints, not left stranded in mid-section such as these. The thumb-nail moulding round the serving top and its lower moulding outlines are quite authentic to the 17th century but the top to the back incorporates a dentillated moulding which is mid-18th century in design. It is not clear whether the piece is meant to be stained in any way when finished, but the implication is not, since it was the fashion, 1880-1910, for such `back-to-Elizabeth F designers to leave the natural wood unstained and simply to wax polish it.
The ‘lower’ move continued. This time the back has been cut down to a simple one with the central arch characteristic of Edwardian furniture. Geometric mouldings and applied split balusters decorate the surfaces.
Large turned bulbous feet/legs in Elizabethan style.
An oak sideboard in the ‘Jacobean’ manner, incorporating moulded drawer fronts, twist-turned legs and stretchers, scrolled pierced carving in Restoration style and a low arched back as favoured by Edwardian fashion, but getting ever lower.
The back has almost gone, preparing the way for the simple Jacobean styles of the late 1920s and 1930s. Otherwise similar decoration to previous examples. 1900-1925

SIDEBOARDS  reproduction, 1890-1930:
`Queen Anne’ styles leading to ‘burr walnut bedappled’
It is not quite clear when the return to 18th century designs led to a thirst for ‘Queen Anne’. Certainly the cabriole leg was used on dining chairs before the end of the century. This feature, on sideboards, seems to have been a bit later  say in the 1890s  but the design seems to have gathered popularity until its heyday in the 1930s. (See also `burr walnut bedappled’ in Design Data Sheets, page 37.) The ‘Queen Anne’ style, exemplified by the use of the cabriole leg, should not be confused with ‘Victorian Queen Anne’ which was a more Palladian, William Kent-ish architectural style with triangular or broken pediments popular around the 1870s and 1880s for cabinets.
The Queen Anne of Edwardian times is nearer the real thing, using cabriole legs and fiddle-shaped splats for chairs. It is not a pure style, however, and is distinct from exact reproductions of Queen Anne pieces.
An oak sideboard (also made available in mahogany at the time) whose only real claim to Queen Anne pretensions lies in its thin, weakly-designed cabriole legs. There is the high back of Victorian taste and the large central mirror. The open central section was rather hopefully called a cellaret by the makers but the bowl placed within it in the photograph has unfortunate connotations of night-time use. 1900-1910
A second variety of oak sideboard where, again, the only claim to Queen Anne styling is in the weak front cabriole legs.
The back is lower and squarer and someone has had the idea of attaching a carved embellishment to each door. Otherwise only cabriole legs give it the Queen Anne name, but at least they are on the back as well as
the front. 1900-1915
Still coming down, the back is lower and the flat-capped uprights of art nouveau contrast somewhat with the Queen Anne cabrioles. Made in mahogany; not a Queen Anne wood. The popular Edwardian semi-circular
central arch has had a Queen Anne carved ’shell’ put in it  very appropriate.
The back has gone entirely and the form is distinctly modern reproduction. Two variants on the figured walnut Queen Anne style sideboard showing a return to the ‘dressing table’ shape.
A burr walnut sideboard, this time with a short modern back and on paw-footed cabriole legs with rather bulbous toes and shell-carved knees. The carving on the door mouldings and the top edge has a rather
machine-reproduced look about it. 1920-1940
A rather fancy sideboard of a type associated with the Bath Cabinet Makers in the 1920s and 1930s. It is ‘Queen Anne’ with `William and Mary’ overtones and even William Kent type chamfered fluted edges. So here we go:
The legs are cabrioles with shell carving and scroll feet introduced c.1720. The stretchers connecting the legs and the scrolled carved cresting rails between them are associated with the period 1680-1700.
The oyster veneers and inlaid boxwood are c.1680-1700 but the ‘feather’ or `herring-bone’ banding belongs to 1700-1720.
The canted corners with fluting are an architectural motif associated with William Kent c.1720-1730.

SIDEBOARDS  reproduction, 1880-1930: 18th century and early 19th century mahogany
The sideboard almost as Adam originally saw it in 1760. Two pedestals flanking a table with a wine cooler under it. The pedestals have urn-shaped vases lined to take iced water for drinking and hot water for washing silver. The pedestals could be used as plate warmers and wine storage (cellaret) if required. The central table has a high brass rail behind it. This is a faithful Edwardian reproduction  they were good at making these.
The pedestals and urns are now the most valuable part for their decorative qualities. 1900-1920
The revival of 18th century designs in the 1880s saw the return of the traditional ‘Georgian’ mahogany sideboard which has persisted as a favourite ever since. Conceived by the Adam brothers around 1760 as a rather extended range of table and pedestals, the form has been modified until very suitable for most dining rooms. The traditional pillared dining table, mahogany chairs and sideboard are such a deeply-ingrained English form that even now the industry producing modern reproductions must account for a large proportion of all dining furniture sold in the British Isles.
The next stage on from the Adam design. The end pedestals have been integrated with the table. The urn-shaped vases (or is it vase-shaped urns) remain. The brass gallery is more decorative. A reproduction of a 1780-1800 design. 1900-1910
Now comes a third stage. The pedestals have been attenuated into two cupboards on square tapering legs and the central table has a deep drawer. The vase-shaped urns have gone. Almost the accepted form of
Georgian sideboard so beloved of the reproducer. 1900-1920
A mahogany sideboard of shallower proportions without the shelf under the central section. A very faithful copy of a style popular around 1790-1820 but made a hundred years or more later. The bow front contains a
central drawer and kneehole flanked by two deep cupboards. The boxwood stringing lines provide an elegant and restrained decoration appropriate to the spirit of a simple George III piece.
An integrated half-circular version where the deep cupboards either side and the central section are now the same depth. To fill in the space, the central section has a drawer and a large space below it. A high quality
version would have a tambour shutter to draw across this space.
A mahogany bow-fronted sideboard now much shallower with little difference in depth between central drawer and cupboards. In this case the decoration is a little more elaborate than that of 445, but the proportion is clumsier, partly due to the thick legs and partly to the over emphasis on the thickness of the top. 1900-1930