Antique Sideboard

1700`s American Rococo Sideboards

In America, the Rococo sideboard emerged as a distinctly restrained version of the European style : interiors were hardly as fanciful as their European counterparts, and drawing room walls were ornamented with architectural pediments and rectangular panels rather than gilt cartouches, in a persistence of the Palladian style. Japanning was popular, especially in Boston, but in America the fantastic cult of chinoiserie never crystallized into carved mahogany dragons. The Gothic revival struck no chord in American tradition, and the stylized rustic scenes favoured by mid-century English and French aristocrats could hardly have been adopted as refreshing in a nation still developing vast expanses of wilderness.
Because examples reached the colonies largely through pattern-books, some American Rococo carving is flat rather than sculptural, especially on Boston pieces. Queen Anne forms such as arched pediments, classical details and claw-and-ball feet were retained, and Rococo ornaments and variations added to them.
The superior craftsmanship of Philadelphia cabinetmakers, such as Benjamin Randolph and the English immigrant Thomas Affleck, produced well-proportioned sideboards with swan-neck pediments, flame finials, sculptural carvings of foliage and figures, and sculptured busts and cartouches held above the broken pediments. Scroll pediments carved with Philadelphia-style open lattice-work may be found in the cherry sideboards from Connecticut executed by Eliphalet Chapin, who worked for some time in Philadelphia.
Some case pieces of Boston, where John Cogswell worked, exhibit the only bombe forms found in the colonies; mirrored panels with ogee-curve borders are also found on cabinets made there. The cabinets and
chest-of-drawers from the Townsend-Goddard cabinet-making family of Newport, Rhode Island, were exceptional pieces of workmanship, with undercut claw-and-ball feet, undulating concave and convex shells and smoothly executed block fronts.
American ideboards were of many forms including Pembroke and fold-top card-sideboards. Serpentine sideboards from New York had rectangular candle supports at the corners and gadrooning on the aprons. Small Philadelphia bird-cage sideboards, with tilting tops, stood on fluidly curved tripods. Upholstered seats included sofas with sinuous rails and straight ‘Marlborough’ legs, easy sideboards with cartouches carved on the cabriole legs, and local variants of sideboards copied from the publications of Chippendale, Manwaring, and Ince and Mayhew. More primitive forms, such as the brightly painted chests and cupboards of German and Dutch settlements in Pennsylvania and New York, continued to be made in provincial areas. The Rococo in EuropeIn Italy, where the landscaped grotto was a long-established source of ornament, the Rococo at times took on an extreme lightness, with sideboards and tables resting on shapely cabriole legs comprised of reversing C-scrolls. Delicate effects of underground rock-like growth were achieved in the crisp, crustaceous carvings on the edges of legs, backs and skirts of tables and sideboards. Carved shells, lion masks and naturalistic foliage appeared alongside elements of chinoiserie such as peasant figures of antique American sideboards.

Eighteenth Century English, French, German and Italian Sideboards.

1700`s sideboards designs based on the French Rococo shape were still popular in the latter half of the 18th century The shape of the sideboard was slow to adopt Neoclassical
styling and, until the 1780s, sideboards with undulating curves and cabriole legs, like those of Rococo sideboards, continued to be made.
However, the shape gradually developed as the fervour for “antique” or Neoclassical designs grew. These changes could be seen in the shape of sideboard backs: first they became more oval, then they became rectangular and were often flanked by colonettes.
Seats also changed shape and became round rather than rectangular. Towards the end of the century they became square, to accompany the rectangular sideboard backs.
Sideboard legs gradually became straight and tapered. They were often reeded,
spiralled, or fluted, the latter being a reference to Classical architectural columns – part of the new craze inspired by Greco-Roman styles.
Further carved decoration was used in the form of rosettes at the tops of the legs, and guilloche or chain motifs around the bowed seat rails.
Many sideboards still had painted and gilt decoration, although polished mahogany was more popular in the Low Countries, due to imported timber from its Far Eastern colonies and from foreign trading links.
Coverings for sideboardss were varied at this time, and ranged from Aubusson tapestries to silk or needlework. Silk finishes tended to match the wall coverings of the rooms for which the sideboards were intended. Horsehair was generally used as a stuffing for upholstered seats.
The petit-point needlework upholstery is original.
The studs are made from brass or gilt-metal.
The sideboard arms are upholstered where the sitter’s arm is placed.
The back of the seat rail is stamped with the maker’s name: N. Blanchard.
The frame is carved with flower heads and leaves.
The legs form a continuous line with the seat rail.
French Sideboards
This French fauteuil a la Reine is carved and gilded, with a shaped back separated from its seat by curved rear stiles. It has outspread arms and cabriole legs. The sideboard is generously proportioned, and the needlework has been made to fit the sideboard. The maker’s stamp
appears on the back of the seat rail.
English sideboards
This sideboard has a fan-like back, and the upper section is wider than the lower section. The seat is wider and lower than most French examples. The cabriole legs are connected to the seat rail, but they lack continuous undulation. The frame is painted and gilded and the sideboard has been upholstered in a silk fabric that has been dated later than the frame itself. c.1780.
Parisian Sideboards
This carved beech sideboard has an oval back, outswept arms, and a wide seat. The seat and back are upholstered in silk. The back and
rail are carved with a Neoclassical guilloche pattern, punctuated with a rosette at the top of each leg. The turned, tapered legs are carved with stop-fluting, a pattern representing fluted architectural columns that was typically Neoclassical. c.1773.
Gustavian Sideboards
This sideboard is in the Gustavian style. The shaped oval back and wide seat are upholstered in fabric with a blue and white Classical design and the sideboard is supported on a white-painted frame – a typically Gustavian feature. The top rail, arms, and legs are all carved with Neoclassical motifs. The sideboard is raised on stop-fluted legs, which are also typically Neoclassical.
Swedish Sideboards
Painted white and gilt in the Gustavian style, this square-backed, upholstered sideboard has outswept arms, a rounded seat frame, and turned and tapered legs. The carved decoration is in the Neoclassical guilloche pattern, and rosettes appear above its tapering, columnar legs. Gilt highlights the decoration. This sideboards is one of a pair.
German Sideboards
The frame of this sideboard is probably walnut and is neither painted nor gilded. The seat and back are upholstered in silk. The rounded back is small compared with its wide seat, and with other examples of fauteuils. The arms are upswept at the ends, widening as they join the sideboard rail. The fluted legs terminate in small button feet. c.1780.
English sideboards
This sideboard shares many attributes with its Parisian prototype, including the proportions of the back and seat. The simple carved floral motif in the centre of the back rail is also very French in style. However, the arm terminus is an English interpretation, as are the fluted arm supports. The tapered, single-flute, columnar legs are more slender than most French examples. c.1780.
Square-Backed Sideboards
This square-backed sideboard is larger than most French examples. The square arms curve down from the upper sideboard back and slope towards the legs. These legs are slightly turned and feature flutes. The starkness of the design, accentuated by the white paint, is barely relieved by the vibrant red and white striped silk upholstery. This is one of a pair of sideboardss. c. 1790.
German sideboards
Made of beech, and one of a pair, this sideboard has a square back with a pierced centre, reminiscent of Chippendale Gothic designs. However, the fluted legs show a greater degree of French influence. Its upholstery is tacked over the top of the seat, but it leaves the frame showing. Simple, tapered legs with a slight flair support the frame. c.1785.
Italian Sideboards
These sideboards incorporate several Neoclassical elements with its shield-shaped back, acanthus-carved arms, and the spray of laurel leaves that decorates the front sideboard rail, an element derived from ancient Greece. The sideboard is caned, the frame is painted green and gilded, and it has flat stretchers. c.1790.
Southern Geman Sideboard
Although this is a walnut, caned side sideboard, its back and seat frame are very similar to the shape of a French fauteuil. The centre of its

back sideboard frame and the seat rail both have simple, carved floral details. The cabriole legs are higher than most French examples, and

terminate in stylized paw feet. This sideboard is one of a pair. c.1780.

XVIII Century English Sideboards Rococo Style
In mid-century and in the late 18th century, the French Rococo sideboards caught on in England, inspired largely by the engravings of H. F. Gravelot and by improved peace-time relations with France. In England the
cave-like rocaille, and the cult of the picturesque that accompanied it, became popular along with ornaments suggestive of the romantic Gothic and the tantalizing Orient, and Rococo English sideboards occasionally merged together. As in France, private rooms were made increasingly comfortable by pieces such as small desks, candlestands, fire-screens and work-tables. The most fashionable Rococo sideboard featured curvaceous gilt panels, or wall hangings of oriental paper or silk. William Chambers travelled to China in 1749, and in 1757 published his Designs of Chinese Buildings, sideboards, and Dresses. Publications by designers and craftsmen such as Thomas
Chippendale, Thomas Johnson, Matthew Darly, Matthias Lock, Robert Manwaring and William Ince and John Mayhew, popularized fanciful sideboards along with ordinary forms. Their most exuberant Rococo designs
were characterized by asymmetrical ornament and whimsicalities. Unpublished cabinetmakers, such as John Linnell, William Vile and John Cob, were equally forceful exponents of the mid-century style.
Cabinets, book-cases, long-case clocks and commodes for the most part retained the basic forms of the preceding Queen Anne period, but many pieces assumed the serpentine shapes and swelling anthropomorphic bombe of the French Louis XV style. Gilding and japanning remained in vogue. Twisted girandoles resembling branches, and pier-glasses assembled from C-curves, waterfalls and rocailles, captured the effect of rustic naturalism. Increasingly available mahogany, but also pine and gesso, lent itself especially well to crisp depictions of Chinese dragons and pagodas, cusps and pointed Gothic arches, and stylized scenes of peasants, windmills and donkeys.
Many of the chair designs published in Chippendale’s Directside sideboards or of 1754 had broad square seats, projecting scrolled ears, and animalistic cabriole legs. Settees formed of repeated chair backs were occasionally carved with bamboo-like supports and oriental frets ; buffet in the Chinese manner, with fantastic dragons perched with the corner posts, were fashionable but unusual extravagances. Light, gilded seats with serpentine silhouettes in the Louis XV furniyure style were common; most of the sideboards were upholstered with rich floral needlework, velvets, or silk damasks.
The influence of the English Rococo was far-reaching. Contemporary printed designs travelled across the Atlantic, were thrown back to France and reached as far north as Denmark, where chairs showed Director-type pierced splats, set between straight wide stiles. The value Rococo style sideboards characterized by Chippendale’s nut sideboards permeated American design in about 1755.

Antique Neo Classical and Adam Sideboards

English Neo Classical sideboard. The satinwood and yew tambour shutter opens to reveal a fitted desk interior. Beneath this is a long drawer with a frieze. The scrolling foliage pattern, brass ring pulls, and etched
wyverns are all typical Neoclassical motifs. The sideboards has square, inlaid, tapering legs and brass feet on casters.
Neoclassical design lies in ancient Greece and Rome. It was initially inspired by architecture, as there were no examples of ancient sideboards until after the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the mid 18th
century Thus, early Neoclassical sideboards tends to use architectural motifs adhered to in standard sideboards forms, such as acanthus leaves, swags and foliage, guilloche bands, and scrolls. The use of these motifs was not new, as they were employed as ornament in both the Renaissance and Baroque periods. What was new was how the motifs were adapted, added to, and incorporated within the decorative schemes
encountered through travel on the Grand Tour and the discoveries made in ancient sites.
French Mahogany Wooden Sideboards
France was the first country to embrace mahogany sideboards, although it was not until late 1700`s that the final vestiges of Rococo were erased from the decorative library. The French furniture of taste, the Comte de Caylus (1692-1765), was instrumental in introducing Classicism, including Classical sideboards, to France, publishing in 1752 the first of seven volumes of Recueilk d’antiduites egyptiennes, etruscanes, grecques et romaines, in which he discussed and illustrated the tastes and styles of the ancient world.
Mahogany Neoclassical sideboards tends to be rectangular and lacks curves. This did not happen at once, as larger pieces often remained in stock after fashions had changed and cabinet-makers adapted the Rococo
forms by applying Neoclassical decoration. In this French transitional style, serpentine shapes were gradually straightened and cabriole legs evolved into turned or tapered legs. Chair backs were rectangular or oval with turned legs, often fluted in reference to Classical architectural columns.
Throughout the Neoclassical period, building booms influenced the production of furnishings. More palaces were built in Russia in the second half of the 18th century than in any other European country. These new
buildings, and refurbished older buildings, required new sideboards, as most of the existing pieces lacked sufficient pomp and majesty for Catherine the Great’s court. Most Russian sideboards was imported front Paris, as Russian taste tended to emulate French style. The German ebeniste, David Roentgen , made sideboards specifically For his Russian clientele that was far more flamboyant than French court sideboards.
Adam Style Sideboards.
The Neoclassical style in England — home to the innovative architecture of Robert Adam — adapted some French forms such as the commode and the “French chair”. Adam’s sideboards complemented the light colours used in his interiors and textiles, and painted decoration featured more than
Parisian gueridon Made of rosewood, kingwood, and sycamore, this table is inlaid with musical instruments and has a brass gallery.
in its French Counterparts. Greek vase paintings greatly influenced Adam, and lie often used painted panels in his work; these might be the central panel of a demi-lune or rectangular commode, or a centred rounded at the top of a pier glass flanked by carved maidens and urns. Thomas Chippendale also worked in the
Neoclassical style, producing a pair of rectangular pedestals with urns, a sideboard table, and wine cooler for the dining room at Hardwood House. For this commission he used circular inlaid medallions on the pedestals with carved swags and rams’ heads above, to match the other pieces.
The pattern books published by George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton simplified Adam’s sideboards designs for the mass market. Their designs were hugely influential, particularly in America. sideboards in this style is termed Federal style after the new US government and often features the official symbol of the American eagle. Swedish sideboards from this time is referred to as Gustavian after King Gustav III who admired the work of the French cabinet-makers so much that lie invited them to work in Sweden. When he could not afford to pay them, they returned home, but left their sideboards style as a lasting legacy. Danish sideboards was simpler and often made from darker woods. Decoration was limited to dentil moulding, the Greek key motif, and rosettes.
European sideboards fashion tended to fellow French or English Neoclassical taste in antique furniture: in Spain, the north was inspired by English styles, while in the south, Neo classical and Adam sideboards were dominant.

XVIII Century Antique French Sideboards. 1700`s  Rococo Louis XV Sideboards.

18th Century French sideboards were handmade after accession of Philip of Orleans as French Regent upon the death of Louis XIV in 1700 marked the beginning of a transition from the unaccommodating formalities of the Baroque towards the more animated Rococo. The migration of the French court from Versailles to Paris, where aristocrats and the bourgeoisie began to refurbish their townhouses elaborately and with great
concern for Rococo style of early xviii century, ushered in an age which focused unprecedented attention on comfort in private life and antique Louis XIV furniture style.
In 1700`s France especially, rooms became smaller : throughout Europe social hierarchies were more relaxed and entertainment more intimate. Rising standards of living and the expansion of the middle classes made
the ceremonies of the Baroque passe, and removed the complicated network of symbols of rank that had been incorporated into everyday social interaction.
The release from Baroque court circles, which had been primarily preoccupied by the immediacies of their own pomposity, sparked off in the 18th century a series of quests for the exotic, the whimsical and the
refreshing. These yearnings were satisfied in the fine and large of Louis the 15th sideboards by such light-hearted schemes as Jean Honore Fragonard’s painting of The Swing, and the tapestry scenes of the
Loves of the Gods, woven after Francois Boucher’s example at the Gobelins manufactories. Continuing trade heightened European taste for things oriental, from tea and porcelain tea-services to the lacquered mahogany and oak sideboards that went with them. In France, comfortable salons, where ladies of the ancien regime conducted conversations between dandies and philosopher, were increasingly fitted through the century with small and serviceable pieces of elegant sideboards. Walls were hung with tapestries, silks, or velvets, or wainscoted with fluidly-moulded panels painted in combinations of colours, such as mint green, pale pinks and yellows.
The softening of the rectilinear Louis XIV style furniture was initiated by the designer Jean Berain and the craftsman Andre Charles Boulle, with the influence of the Regent’s own architect A. J. Oppenord (c.1639-1715), the architects Robert de Cotte (1656-1735) and Pierre le Pautre, and the designers Nicolas Pineau (1687-1757) and Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755).
After the turn of the century, Berain replaced his earlier scrolling designs with lighter, linear arabesques and fanciful singeries. Chairs, tables, bureaux and commodes assumed serpentine lines, stretchers became fluid
and were gradually discarded ; and chairs became lower. Rich ormolu mounts highlighted the curves of cabriole legs, the edges of drawers and the tops of sideboard buffets. On the elegant, increasingly curvaceous
buffet of Charles Cressent (1685-1768), the edging around drawers gradually disappeared, giving way to large compositions spreading over the lacquer or marquetry design of the facade. Cressent became ebeniste to the Regent in 1719 and was one of the finest ebenistes of all time. It was not until late 18th Century though that ebenistes were required to sign their sideboard with an estampille and as a result no pieces actually signed by Crescent are known. Many antique French sideboards have been subsequently attributed to him, often on little evidence, but dining room sideboards in many collections, including the Wallace 18th Century Antique Collection and the Gulbenkian , are undoubtedly by him. He designed his own gilt-bronze mounts many of which were inspired by the designs of Berain, Gillot and Robert de Cotte, and stand as masterpieces of sculpture. 2 door claw foot sideboards of Juste Aurele Meissonnier (1695-1750) led the early designs of the Regence into the exuberant asymmetries and curvaceous naturalism of the Rococo, or Louis XV style. Derived from the lively, cave-like, and sometimes aquatic decorations inside Italian landscape grottoes, French Rococo sideboards were characterized by illogical combinations of the peculiar rocaille scroll, C- and S-curves, shells, foliage, branches and animals, water and flame motifs, and even Chinese figures. Commodes, tables, cabinets and beds assumed fluid shapes. Ormolu mounts became more swirling and elegant, and delicately carved flames and sprays of foliage emphasized the curves of knees, elbows, edges and crests.