The Georgian Sideboard Trace Mayer Sideboard: a side table for use as a serving table, invented by Robert Adam in the early 1760s. The word now connotes that type of side table which was specifically for use in a dining room. Such sideboards were designed en suite with a wine cooler, knife boxes and the rest of the dining room furniture. A more compact type, with drawers and cupboards for storage, came into use by the 1770s. Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. E nglish furniture designs developed rapidly throughout the eighteenth century, and cabinetmakers were kept busy meeting the demand for new furniture from an increasingly prosperous society. Between 1730 and 1790, 148 manor houses were built or refurbished in England. In London alone, in 1760 there were between 5,000 and 6,000 cabinetmakers who competed intensely for the newly-moneyed patrons. One result of this competition was an increase in innovative interior and furniture designs. The evolution of the sideboard from 1750 to 1820 is a fascinating example of one of these designs that originated in the prosperity of Georgian England and quickly spread to America. The sideboard was not just a marketing gimmick thought up by the designers of the time. Its development resulted mainly from changes in social behavior and the architecture of the new homes. Rooms began to be built for specific purposes. Dining rooms, hall rooms, libraries and reception rooms were all single-purpose rooms. Before this, rooms generally served many functions, and the furniture in them had to accommodate each use. The sideboard, however, was designed for one purpose and one room. George Hepplewhite produced this engraving, published in 1787, entitled “Side Board.” This model was quite popular through the 19th century, and is still reproduced to this day. This sideboard would fit much more easily into a smaller room. Note the serpentine form, tapering legs, spade feet and elegant proportions. This engraving does not include a splash rail, but one could have been added quite easily. The design includes plans of the interiors of the cabinets at each end. Thomas Chippendale Before the 1760s, “sideboard tables” were used regularly for serving food. Chippendale’s designs for sideboard tables are the most influential. He designed them in each of the three main styles that were currently fashionable – the Rococo (which he called the “modern”), the Gothic and the Chinese. Cabinetmakers interpreted his designs in different ways according to the tastes and pockets of their patrons. The tables, like all fashionable furniture of the period, were Page 32 ■ Antiques Journal ■ November 2009 This design, by Thomas Sheraton, entitled “A Sideboard with Vase Knife Cases” was published in 1793. Sheraton incorporates the urns and pedestals as well as a bow front center and tambour door. The tapering legs and contrasting colors of the wood are elements used over and again on Neoclassical pieces. These pieces tended to be quite large in scale, requiring enormous rooms. Eventually this form will keep the center section, but lose the urns and pedestals.