CUPBOARDS appear in English inventories as early as 1344. Persons of rank in England had their cupboards surmounted by a set of shelves to display the silver and gold plate. Each shelf was narrower than the one beneath, like a set of steps, and the number of shelves indicated the rank of the owner, five being the greatest number, to be used by the king only.

The first cupboard consisted of an open framework, a “borde” upon which to set cups, as the name implies. Later it was partially enclosed below, and this enclosed cupboard was used to hold valuables, or sometimes the food which was afterward distributed by the lady of the house. This was known as an almery or press cupboard, the former name corresponding to the French word armoire.

The names “court cupboard” or “livery cupboard” were used to designate a piece of furniture without an enclosed cupboard, low or short, as the French word court implies, and intended for a serving-table, as the word “livery,” from the French livrer, to deliver, indicates. In Europe such pieces were called dressoirs.

Cupboards abound in colonial inventories, under various names—“small cupboard,” “great cupboard,” “press cupboard,” “wainscot cupboard,” “court cupboard,” “livery cupboard,” “hanging cupboard,” “sideboard cupboard.” The cupboard formed an important part of the furniture owned by men of wealth and position in the colonies.

These cupboards were generally of oak, but those made in this country have the backs and bottoms of the cupboards and drawers of pine. The interior is similar in all, the lower cupboard usually having shelves, which seldom appear in the upper cupboard. Sometimes the lower part of the piece is divided into drawers for holding linen.

Such a cupboard is shown in Illustration 68. This fine example is known as the “Putnam cupboard.” It is now owned by the Essex Institute, of Salem, to which it was presented by Miss Harriet Putnam Fowler of Danvers, Massachusetts. It descended to her from John Putnam, who brought it from England about 1640. Upon the back may be seen marks of a fire which two hundred years ago destroyed the house in which the cupboard stood. The wood is English oak, and the mouldings used in the panelling are of cedar. The cupboard is in two parts, the upper section with the enclosed cupboard resting upon the lower section with its three drawers.

Another panelled cupboard is shown in Illustration 69, in which both the upper and lower parts are made with a recessed cupboard, enclosed, with a drawer below. The wood is oak, with the turned pieces painted black. This cupboard is in the house of Charles R. Waters, Esq., of Salem. Upon the top are displayed some good pieces of old glass.

Many press cupboards were carved in designs similar to those upon the early chests. Illustration 70 shows a carved press cupboard owned by Walter Hosmer, Esq., of Wethersfield.

The wood is American oak and the cupboard was probably made in Connecticut, where there must have been unusually good cabinet-makers during the last half of the seventeenth century, for many of the best oak chests and cupboards existing in this country were made in Connecticut. This cupboard is very large, measuring five feet in height and four feet in width.

All cupboards were provided with cupboard cloths or cushions, the latter probably made somewhat thicker than the simple cloth, by the use of several layers of goods or of stuffing. These cloths or cushions were placed on the top of the cupboard, to set the glass or silver upon, and the early inventories have frequent mention of them. By 1690 the press cupboard had gone out of fashion, and but few were made after 1700, although they continued to be used by those who already owned them.

About 1710 the corner cupboard made its appearance, often under the name “beaufet” or “beaufatt.” It was generally built into the corner, and was finished to correspond with the panelling around the room. The lower part was closed by panelled doors, and the upper part had sometimes one glass door, sometimes two, opening in the middle; but more often it was left without a door. The top of the beaufatt was usually made in the form of an apse, and in the finest specimens the apse was carved in a large shell. The shelves were not made to take up the entire space in the cupboard, but extended around the back, and were cut in curves and projections, evidently to fit pieces of glass or china, for the display of which the beaufatt was built rather than to serve as a simple closet. A fine beaufatt is shown in Illustration 71, which is in the Deerfield Museum. From the construction of the pillars at the side it is evident that it was not intended to use a door to the upper part.

That there was some distinction between the corner cupboard and the beaufatt would appear from the difference in their valuation in inventories, but what was the difference in their construction we do not know.

Cupboards were made, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, of mahogany and other woods, and such corner cupboards, made as a piece of furniture and not built into the house, were common in the Southern States, about 1800. The corner cupboard, or beaufatt, was both convenient and ornamental, taking up but little room and filling what was often an empty space. Our ancestors frequently utilized the large chimney also, by making the sides into small closets or cupboards, and occasionally a door with glass panes was set into the chimney above the mantel, with shelves behind it to hold glass or china.

While the New England inventories speak of cupboards, the word kas, or kasse, appears in Dutch inventories in New York. The kas was the Dutch cupboard, and was different in style from the cupboard in use in New England. It was of great size, and had large doors, behind which were wide shelves to hold linen. The kas was usually made in two parts, the upper one having two doors and a heavy cornice above. The lower part held a long drawer, and rested upon large ball feet. A panelled kas of somewhat different form is shown in Illustration 72, without the ball feet, and made in three parts; the lower section with the drawer, the middle cupboard section, enclosed with large doors, and a second cupboard above that, the whole surmounted with a cornice. This kas is made of kingwood, a hard wood with a grain not unlike that of oak, but with darker markings. The bill of lading is still preserved, dated 1701, when the kas, packed full of fine linen, was imported from Holland by the father of Dr. Samuel Johnson, president of King’s College from 1754 to 1763. It is now owned by Dr. Johnson’s descendant, Mrs. Johnson-Hudson of Stratford, Connecticut.

Inventories during the latter years of the seventeenth century speak of a “sideboard cupboard,” “sideboard table,” and “side-table,” but the sideboard, in our acceptance of the word, dates to the latter half of the eighteenth century. Chippendale designed no sideboards with drawers and compartments, but he did design side-tables, or sideboard tables, with marble or mahogany tops and carved frames. A Chippendale side-table is shown in Illustration 73. The wood is mahogany, and the frame is carved elaborately and beautifully in designs similar to those of Chippendale and his contemporaries, which abound in flowers, birds, and shells. The cabriole legs end in massive lion’s paws. This table is what is called Irish Chippendale.

In Ireland, working at the same period as Chippendale, drawing their ideas from the same sources, and probably from Chippendale as well, were cabinet-makers, much of whose work has come down, notably side-tables. The shell plays a prominent part; on this table beside the large shell are two small ones upon each leg. The carving of the Irish school is not so fine as its English model, but is very rich. This table is five feet long and the original top was of marble. It is owned by Harry Harkness Flagler, Esq., of Millbrook, New York.

A Chippendale side-table is shown in Illustration 74, which was evidently made in England, from Chippendale’s designs, if not by Chippendale himself. It is very long and has had to sustain a great weight in the heavy marble top, but it is in splendid condition, perhaps because it is so heavy that it is seldom moved. It has passed through many vicissitudes,—war, fire and earthquake,—in Charleston, South Carolina, since it was brought there by the ancestor of its present owner, George W. Holmes, Esq., of Charleston.

These long side-tables were designed not only by Chippendale, but by the other cabinet-makers and designers of the day, Ince and Mayhew, and Manwaring; but the tables of these less noted men usually are made after the prevailing Chinese style, with applied fretwork and legs which are pierced, thus depriving them of the strength necessary in so large a piece. Chippendale made these also, but in this table the cabinet-maker chose a design which looks and is strong. The carving is in scrolls done in the solid wood, and is French in design. The bracket at the top of the leg is made in a scroll, which extends entirely around the table.

The earliest mention of a sideboard, the description of which implies a form of construction similar to that of the later sideboard, is in 1746, when an advertisement in a London newspaper speaks of “a Large marble Sideboard Table with Lavatory and Bottle Cistern.” Chippendale’s designs, published in 1753 and 1760, contain nothing answering to this description, and both he and other cabinet-makers of that period give drawings of side-tables only, without even a drawer beneath. Such a sideboard as this advertisement of 1746 mentions, may have given the idea from which, forty years later, was developed the sideboard of mahogany, often inlaid, with slender legs and curved front, which is shown in the majority of antique shops as “Chippendale,” while the heavy veneered sideboard, with claw feet and compartments extending nearly to the floor, made after 1800, goes under the name of “Colonial.” One name is as incorrect as the other. Thomas Shearer, an English cabinet-maker, designed the first of the slender-legged sideboards, and they appear in his drawings published in 1788. Hepplewhite’s book, published in 1789, gave similar drawings, as did Sheraton’s in 1791, and these three cabinet-makers designed the sideboards which were so fashionable from 1789 to 1805. The majority which are found in this country were probably made here, but one is shown in Illustration 75, which has a most romantic history of travel and adventure. It is in the half-circle shape which was Shearer’s favorite design, and was probably of English make, although it was brought from France to America.

In 1792 the ship Sally, consigned to Colonel Swan, sailed from France, laden with rich furniture, tapestries, robes, everything gathered together in Paris which might have belonged to a royal lady.

The Sally came to Wiscasset, Maine, and the story told “down East” is that there was a plot to rescue Marie Antoinette, and the Sally was laden for that purpose; and that a house had been built in a Maine seaport for the queen, whose execution put an end to the plot, and sent the Sally off to America with her rich cargo. I cannot help thinking that if the story be true, Marie Antoinette was spared many weary days of discontent and homesickness; for the temperament of the unfortunate queen, luxury loving, gay, and heedless, does not fit into the life of a little Maine seaport town one hundred years ago. When the Sally arrived, her cargo of beautiful things was sold. Legends of Marie Antoinette furniture crop up all around the towns in the neighborhood of Wiscasset, but, singularly enough, I have been unable to trace a single piece in Maine except this sideboard. Miss Elizabeth Bartol of Boston, whose mother was a granddaughter of Colonel Swan, owns several pieces. Colonel Swan’s son married the daughter of General Knox and took the sideboard with him to General Knox’s home in Thomaston, Maine, where it remained for many years.

The sideboard is made of oak (showing its English origin) veneered with mahogany. The lines upon the front and the figures upon the legs are inlaid in satinwood, and the knife-box is inlaid in the same wood. The top of the sideboard is elaborately inlaid with satinwood and dark mahogany, in wide bands, separated by lines of ebony and satinwood, and crossed by fine satinwood lines radiating from the centre. The handles and escutcheons are of silver, and the top of the knife-box is covered by a silver tray with a reticulated railing. The coffee-urn is of Sheffield plate, and the sideboard with its appurtenances appears to-day as it did one hundred years ago in the house of General Knox. It is now owned by the Hon. James Phinney Baxter of Portland, Maine.

Knife-boxes were made of different shapes, to hold knives, forks, and spoons, and a pair of knife-boxes was the usual accompaniment to a handsome sideboard. The most skilled cabinet-makers were employed in their manufacture, as each curved section had to be fitted most carefully.

Illustration 76 shows an urn-shaped knife-box of mahogany inlaid in lines of holly. The interior of the box is fitted with circular trays of different heights, and through the little openings in these trays the knives and spoons were suspended.

Illustration 77 shows an urn-shaped knife-box opened. The top rests upon a wooden rod which extends through the middle of the box, and instead of turning back with a hinge, the top slides up on this rod, and when it is raised to a certain height it releases a spring which holds the rod firmly in its place. This urn knife-box is in the Pendleton collection in Providence, Rhode Island.

Urn-shaped boxes were designed by Adam, and are shown in his drawings, to stand upon pedestals at each end of the side table, to be used, one for ice-water, and one for hot water, for the butler to wash the silver, not so plentiful then as now. Very soon the urn-shaped boxes were utilized to hold the knives, forks and spoons. Adam, Shearer, Hepplewhite and Sheraton show designs for knife-boxes, many of them elaborately carved or inlaid, but they must have been very costly, and within the means only of such noblemen, who, in Sheraton’s words, “are unrestrained with the thoughts of expensiveness.”

The usual shape of knife-box found is shown in Illustration 78, owned by Mrs. Clarence R. Hyde, of Brooklyn, N. Y. It is inlaid both outside and inside and the handles and fittings are of silver. The books of designs show boxes of this shape, with the lid put back, as in this illustration, and used to support a large silver plate.

Mahogany was chiefly used in sideboards, with inlaying of satinwood, holly, king, tulip, snake, zebra, yew, maple, and other woods. Occasionally one finds a sideboard veneered with walnut. The curves at the front vary considerably, the ends being convex, and the centre straight; or the ends concave, forming with the centre a double curve. A sideboard with rounded ends and only four legs was made in large numbers around Philadelphia.

Illustration 79 shows a Hepplewhite sideboard owned by the writer. It is of mahogany veneered upon pine, and it was probably the work of a Connecticut cabinet-maker of about 1790. Six chairs, made to go with the sideboard, are similarly inlaid, and the knife-boxes, which have always stood upon this sideboard, have fine lines of inlaying. There is one central long drawer, beneath which, slightly recessed, are doors opening into a cupboard, and two bottle drawers, each fitted with compartments to hold four bottles. There is a cupboard at each curved end, with a drawer above. The coloring of the wood used in this sideboard is very beautiful. Each drawer and door is veneered with a bright red mahogany, with golden markings in the grain, and this is framed in dark mahogany, outlined in two lines of satinwood with an ebony line between. The oval pieces above the legs and the bell-flower design upon the legs are of satinwood. The combination of the different shades of mahogany with the light satinwood is most effective. The handles are new. When this sideboard came into the possession of the writer, the old handles had been removed and large and offensive ones of pressed brass had been fastened upon every available spot, with that love for the showy which seizes upon country people when they attempt the process known as “doing over.” The lids of the knife-boxes open back with hinges, and the interior is fitted with a slanting tray, perforated with openings of different shapes to hold knives, with the handles up, and spoons with the bowls up. A fine line of inlaying goes round each of the openings.

The handles and escutcheons of the knife-boxes are of silver. Upon the top of the sideboard are several pieces of Sheffield plate. At each end is a double coaster upon wheels, with a long handle. Another double coaster, somewhat higher and with reticulated sides, stands beside the coffee-urn, and two single coasters are in front. All of these coasters have wooden bottoms, and were used to hold wine decanters, the double coasters upon wheels having been designed, so the story goes, by Washington, for convenience in circulating the wine around the table.

Illustration 80 shows a Hepplewhite sideboard with a serpentine front, the doors to the side cupboards being concave, as well as the space usually occupied by bottle drawers, while the small cupboard doors in the middle are convex. A long rounding drawer extends across the centre and projects beyond the cupboard below it, while a slide pulls out, forming a shelf, between the long drawer and the small cupboard. There are no bottle drawers in this sideboard. The doors are inlaid with a fan at each corner, and fine lines of holly are inlaid around the legs, doors, and drawer. The silver pieces upon the sideboard top are family heirlooms. The large tea-caddies at each end are of pewter finely engraved. This sideboard is owned by Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge.

A charming little sideboard owned by Mr. Bigelow is shown in Illustration 81. The ordinary measurements of sideboards like the last two shown are six feet in length, forty inches in height, and twenty-eight inches in depth. These measures, with slight variations, give the average size of Hepplewhite sideboards. Occasionally one finds a small piece like Illustration 81, evidently made to fit some space. This sideboard measures fifty-four inches in length, thirty-four in height, and twenty-three in depth.

It has no cupboard, the space below the slightly rounding drawer in the centre being left open. There are fine lines and fans of inlaying in satinwood, and in the centre of the middle drawer is an oval inlay with an urn in colored woods. The handles are not original, and should be of pressed brass, oval or round. The silver service upon the sideboard is of French plate, made about 1845, and is of unusually graceful and elegant design.

Hepplewhite’s sideboards seldom had fluted legs, which seem to have been a specialty of Sheraton, though the latter used the square leg as well. A feature in some of Sheraton’s designs for sideboards was the brass railing at the back, often made in an elaborate design.

Illustration 82 shows a Sheraton sideboard, or side-table, with brass rods extending across the back, and branches for candles at each end. This railing was designed to support the plates which were stood at the back of the sideboard, and also to keep the lids of knife and spoon boxes from falling back against the wall. The branches for candles were recommended for the light which the candles would throw upon the silver. This side-table is very large, measuring six feet eight inches in length, thirty inches in depth, and thirty-eight from the floor to the top of the table. The wood is mahogany, inlaid with satinwood. It is unusual to find such a piece in this country, and this is the only example of an old Sheraton side-table or sideboard with the brass railing which I have ever seen here. It is owned by John C. MacInnes, Esq., of Worcester, and it was inherited by him from a Scotch ancestor.

Sheraton speaks of a “sideboard nine or ten feet long, as in some noblemen’s houses,” but he admits that “There are other sideboards for small dining-rooms, made without either drawers or pedestals.”

A charming little side-table, or sideboard, is shown in Illustration 83, belonging to Dwight M. Prouty, Esq., of Boston. It is of mahogany, and is inlaid with three oval pieces of satinwood, giving the little piece a very light effect. The legs also add to that appearance, the reeded upper section tapering down to a turning and ending in a plain round foot, which looks almost too small for such a piece. The outline of the body is curved down to the legs, making an arch upon the front and sides.

A sideboard of distinctly Sheraton design is shown in Illustration 84. It has the reeded legs which are the almost unmistakable mark of Sheraton. The ends of this sideboard are straight, and only the front is rounding in shape, unlike the sideboard in Illustration 75, which forms a complete semicircle.

The wood is of mahogany, inlaid with fine lines of holly. The little shield-shaped escutcheons at the keyholes are of ivory. There are three drawers above the cupboards and two bottle drawers. Upon the top, at each end, is a wine-cooler of Sheffield plate, and in the centre is a mahogany inlaid knife-box similar to the one in Illustration 78. This sideboard is owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston.

A Sheraton sideboard of later date is shown in Illustration 85. It is of mahogany, and was probably made about 1800. The arched open space in the middle was left for the cellaret, which was the usual accompaniment of the sideboard in those days of hard drinking. The top of this sideboard is surmounted by drawers, with a back above the drawers. The legs and the columns above them are reeded, and the little columns at the corners of the upper drawers are carved, the inner ones with a sheaf of wheat, and the two outside corners with the acanthus leaf. This sideboard was formerly owned by Rejoice Newton, Esq., of Worcester, from whom it has descended to Waldo Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester.

Illustration 86 shows the latest type of a Sheraton sideboard, owned by the Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania, and now in “Stenton,” the house built in 1727 by James Logan, William Penn’s secretary. The sideboard stands where it was placed, about 1805, by George Logan, the great-great grandson of James. The wood is mahogany, and the large square knife-boxes were evidently made to fit the sideboard. The legs, with spade feet, are short, bringing the body of the sideboard close to the floor. The handles are brass knobs.

Cellarets were made as a part of the dining-room furniture. They were lined with zinc, to hold the ice in which the wine bottles were packed to cool, and at the lower edge of the body of the cellaret was a faucet, or some arrangement by which the water from the melted ice could be drawn off. They were designed by Chippendale and all of his contemporaries and by the later cabinet-makers,—Adam, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton.

Illustration 87 shows two cellarets of different styles. The cellaret of octagonal shape, brass bound, with straight legs, is of the style most commonly found. It is in the Poore collection, at Indian Hill. Cellarets of this shape figure in books of designs from 1760 to 1800. The other is oval in form, and has the leg usually attributed to the Adam brothers. This cellaret belongs to Francis H. Bigelow, Esq., of Cambridge. Both cellarets are of mahogany.

We now come to sideboards of the type called “Colonial”; why, it would be difficult to trace, since sideboards of this heavy design were not made until over twenty-five years after the time that the United States took the place of the American colonies.

The heavy Empire fashions gained such popularity in the early years of the nineteenth century that furniture made after those fashions entirely superseded the graceful slender-legged styles of Shearer, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton, and sideboards were made as heavy and clumsy as the others had been light and graceful. The cupboards were extended nearly to the floor, from which the sideboard was lifted by balls or by large carved bears’ feet. Round pillars, veneered, or carved similar to bedposts of the period, with a twist, or the pineapple and acanthus leaf, were used upon the front, and small drawers were added to the top. At about this time glass handles came into fashion, and many of these heavy sideboards have knobs of glass, either clear or opalescent. The brass handles that were used were either the rosette and ring or the knob shape.

Illustration 88 shows a sideboard of this period, 1810-1820, made of mahogany; the panels to the doors, the veneered pillars, and the piece at the back of the top being of a lighter and more finely marked mahogany than the rest, which is quite dark. There is a little panel inlaid in colors upon the lower rail in the centre. The handles are the rosette and ring, the smaller handles matching the large ones. This sideboard belonged to the late Colonel DeWitt of Oxford, Massachusetts, and it is now owned by W. S. G. Kennedy, Esq., of Worcester.

Another type of mahogany Empire sideboard, and one often seen, is shown in Illustration 89. It is owned by L. J. Shapiro, Esq., of Norfolk, Virginia. The body of the sideboard is raised from the floor by very handsome bears’ feet, and the posts extending up to the drawers are carved, and topped by typical Empire carvings of wing effect, which separate the drawers. The centre section of doors is curved outward slightly, and there is a band of carving across the lower edge, below the doors.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century the temperance question did not enter the heads of the fine gentlemen of the day, and the serving of wine was an important consideration. The cellaret or wine cooler accompanied the sideboard, which in the drawings of Hepplewhite, Shearer, and Sheraton had bottle drawers.

What Shearer called “a gentleman’s social table” was designed by several, with conveniences for bottles, glasses, and biscuit, and for facilitating the progress of the wine around the table. In this country the mixing of punch or other beverages was furthered by a piece of furniture called a mixing table.

Mrs. Charles Custis Harrison, of St. David’s, Pennsylvania, owns the mixing table in Illustration 90, and a sideboard to match it. Both pieces were inherited from Robert Morris, in whose famous mansion in Philadelphia they stood. The wood of the table is mahogany and the drawers and doors are of satinwood, finely inlaid. There is a well in the top for a bowl, in which was brewed the punch of the Philadelphia forefathers. The cover of the table is hinged, and the four shelves which show in the illustration fold flat when the cover is down.

The table in Illustration 91 belongs to the Misses Garrett of Williamsburg, Virginia, and is known as a “mint julep” table, having been made for the concocting of that Southern beverage by a Baltimore cabinet-maker. There are shelves behind the door for the accessories to the julep, and for the mixing of it the top of the table is marble.

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