Below are some additional images of the Victorian Burr Walnut Antique Credenza as it is of such good quality and has so many nice features but we can not display all of them on our website so we have shown them on our antiques blog.
Antique Credenza is a very nice classical piece of antique furniture to have in your home and you will struggle to find a better example than this. please see our antiques website for full details and price.
What is a Chiffonier
A chiffonier is a piece of antique furniture that was mainly around in the Regency, William IV and Victorian era. It is a small sideboard or side cabinet, constructed usually with an upper tier (shelf) and was for your dining room, library or drawing room. They sometimes have a cellarets in side for storing wine and a top drawer for your fine cutlery. The top shelf was either for displaying your fine ornaments but the back was to stop any splashing of food onto your wall when serving so it was a dual purpose piece of furniture. We do get many antique chiffonier for sale and always display them on our website. They come in all woods like oak or mahogany but some of my favourite ones are made in rosewood.
We currently have a stunning antique Regency rosewood chiffonier with scrolled back with an upper shelf and scrolled supports. It has a mahogany lined frieze drawer, two cupboard doors with moulding and stands on a plain plinth.
Or if you like mahogany we have an antique Regency mahogany chiffonier with a shaped back, shelf with shaped brackets. The chiffonier has a frieze drawer, two cupboard doors, carved corbels with pilasters and the piece stands on a plain plinth.
Oak is quite hard to find but we do occasionally get them in stock like this antique Victorian oak chiffonier with a shaped raised back, shelf and shaped brackets. It has cupboard doors with moulded panels, a pilaster down both sides and stands on a plain plinth.
They are all very nice antiques and would look stunning in any home.
The development of the antique sideboards
Antique sideboards first appeared in the 18th century and was developed from the antique side tables design which, in the very early period times were used for preparing and storing food before serving. They were first designed as long narrow tables on pedestals with cupboards but this was also an adaptation from the antique dresser. In the 17th century antique furniture cabinet makers made dressers with drawers and cupboards below which made more storage and the extra display room as they had a rack with shelves and cupboards fitted above. Some antique dressers continued to be made without the upper rack and were known as low dressers and this idea led to the sideboard.
An antique sideboard was designed for the needs of the upper class person, to hold the silver, china, table cloths and cutlery. The top was used to put the plates before serving. Some earlier designs of the antique sideboards had a brass gallery with curtains to protect the wall paper from being marked by the splashes from the food when being prepared. Antique sideboards usually have a cellaret built into one of the drawers for storing the wine and they are usually lead lined to keep the bottles cool. In some antique sideboards they also have a chamber pot built into it to save you the hassle of leaving the room to relieve yourself (what a nice picture when eating!)
How the antique sideboard developed throughout history
As fashions change so did antique furniture to suite the trends of the day. Just like the antique dresser was a development from the antique side table, so too was the antique sideboard. In the better class homes in the Georgian period the antique side tables and the antique serving table was used in the dining room but the development of pedestals on either side of the serving table were introduced to create extra storage or to hold wine bottles or plates. For smaller homes this arrangement was not practical enough as there was lots of wasted space so this led to the development of the antique sideboard. antique sideboards came in many forms like straight, bow fronted or sometimes serpentine fronted. They had a shallow central drawer to hold cutlery and at either end a cupboard or deep drawer which when lined with lead and partitioned to hold wine bottles, is known as a cellaret. The other side would sometimes have sliding linen trays for napkins and table linen. In the regency period antique sideboards would often had a brass rail fitted along the back with curtains as they were hung from the rail to prevent food from being splashed on the wall when meals were served. Antique sideboards with pedestal ends remained popular throughout the Victorian and Edwardian periods over time a low backboard was added, which in time became higher and higher until mirrors were incorporated into the design to reflect light into the room. Eventually the space between pedestals was fully enclosed to provide further cupboard space and this was much more practical for smaller homes who needed as much storage space as possible. If you need an antique sideboard then our antique furniture website always displays lots of different variations for sale so please check out today for our latest stock.
The types of antique chiffoniers we sell.
Here at Driscolls antiques we add new items of stock on our antique furniture website on a daily basis. We do get some very nice antique chiffoniers that can be used as sideboards, bookcases, small cupboards and they come in all different sizes, woods and styles.
Just recently we have put up for sale some very nice examples and they are of all different woods so there is something for all tastes.
We have an antique Regency country mahogany chiffonier with a raised shaped back with a shelf supported by beautiful turned columns. The lower section has a rectangular top above a frieze drawer, two cupboard doors with moulded panels and the sides have unusual circular turned motifs above turned pilasters. The chiffonier stands on small turned feet.
We also have an antique Victorian mahogany chiffonier bookcase which is very unusual and has a raised back with beautifully scrolled carvings, shelf and elegant turned supports. The lower section has a rectangular top above a frieze drawer and two glazed cupboard doors and the piece stands on a plain plinth.
For an elegant piece we have an antique Regency rosewood chiffonier with beautiful scrolled carved back with an upper shelf and scrolled carved supports. The lower section has a rectangular top above a mahogany lined frieze drawer with a beautiful carved central motif. The chiffonier has two cupboard doors with moulding stands on a plain plinth.
For a more country rustic look we have a Victorian pollard oak chiffonier with a shaped raised back with a shelf and the lower section has a rectangular top above two frieze drawers, two cupboard doors with moulded panels and pilaster down both sides.
So you can see we have antique chiffoniers for all tastes and we always have a good selection to choose from.
What are the different type of antique sideboards.
The antique sideboard first appeared as a dresser which appeared from the 17th century and this piece of antique furniture was very fashionable in dining rooms of the 18th and 19th centuries. This is a piece of antique furniture which has changes into many different forms over the centuries.
The earliest design of an antique sideboard was a decorative side table on which would be displayed silver, but after the 1770s new designs were produced with with twin pedestals. This type of antique sideboard was practical and decorative, usually you can see one pedestal that serves as a plate warmer and the other can be used as a led lined wine cellaret. These antique sideboards would usually have knife urns on top and in the centre opening a free standing wine cellaret. Some also came with shallow drawers or linen trays for storage of linen and napkins. There was sometimes small drawer or cupboard to store the chamber pot which the gentlemen would use to relieve themselves without having to leave the dining room, what a nice thing to look at whilst dining. Here is three antique sideboards we have for sale and this shows how they changed through the ages.
The first example is an antique Georgian oak dresser with plate racks, two cupboard doors with brass H hinges. It also has four central drawers flanked by a drawer above a cupboard with moulded panels and it stands on bracket feet. The next stage changes the dresser into a version of a sideboard called a chiffonier . we have for sale a William IV rosewood chiffonier with two cupboard doors with arched moulding and beautifully figured centre panels. The sides have beautifully scrolled carved corbels, pilasters and the piece stands on a plain plinth.
From the Victorian ere you get styles more like our antique Victorian pollard oak sideboard with an inverted breakfront top above a concealed drawer, shaped carved brackets and a panelled central back. Each pedestal has carved corbels and columns and the cupboard doors have moulded edges and central panels. One of the interiors has a deep drawer with original brass swan neck handle and celarette lining.
These are very useful pieces of antique furniture.
Antique Mahogany Sideboards
The antique sideboard came into appearance in the late 1700s came from the idea of a table. The famous designer Adam was one of the first people to design an antique sideboard as he designed a piece of antique furniture standing a pedestal with an urn at each end of the side-table. This then led to the pedestals and tables becoming one piece of antique furniture, so became a pedestal sideboard. The pedestals would usually have cupboards or drawers and the cupboards were used for many purposes, like some of the drawers were deep and were lined with lead for the storage of wine, and some had linen trays built in for the napkins and table cloths. Both of the famous designers Hepplewhite and Sheraton designed light and elegant sideboards and some would have serpentine or bow fronted shapes and some would have the brass rails along the top edge which often stood at the back of the sideboard to hold plates.
A very nice example of a Georgian sideboard is one we currently have for sale. It is an antique Victorian mahogany bow fronted sideboard which has a bow front top above a central cutlery drawer and shaped apron. This is flanked by a smaller drawers above a cupboard all with original brass handles. The sideboard stands on six tapering legs with spade feet and is in a Georgian design. Antique sideboards are very nice and useful pieces of antique furniture.
