The Rise The Fall and The Comeback of the Victorian Sideboard Dresser
What is a sideboard/dresser?
These are sideboards or cupboards with drawers that are augmented by decorative features to the top, such as mirrors and decorative backings with shelves.
Nobody makes them anymore.
No, they have been replaced over the last century with dressers or simple sideboard or cupboards with no tops.
Why?
Sideboards were prevalent during the Victorian era, They were a sign of status, the bigger your sideboard, and the higher the quality, the richer you were. Yes, simply as basic as that.
The bottoms were practical but the tops, with mirrors and other decorative type additions meant they lended themselves to the Victorian fashion of ostentatious furnishings. A time when the more fussy, ornate and intricate your household, augmented with as much frippery as possible, the more fashionable you were.
The decline.
By the early 20th century sideboards were going out of fashion as normal dressers became more fashionable. There were still lots made during the Art Nouveau period, primarily of oak but after that, and certainly by art deco and the 1930s, large high-backed sideboards had practically disappeared.
It was just common sense. The bases of sideboards are nearly always cupboards with drawers. Of course, these are still popular today, and have been for the last 100 years and quite simply the old high backside boards were just broken up and the bases used as cupboards.
You see so many at auctions these days where you can see evidence of where mirrors or other tops had sat, now with filled in holes where dowels and other attachment features would have been.
One thing I sell is lots of our over mantel mirrors. Probably half of these are the former sideboard tops. They are absolutely perfect to sit on top of a mantle piece because they are normally of such high quality and aesthetically very pleasing to look at, it makes perfect sense to use them for this purpose.
Smaller sideboard mirrors are also a perfect size just to go in a hallway or on a wall because they didn’t have all the shelving and intricate turnings and other carved features.
An Organic Evolution.
With the high fashion of upcycling and repurposing furniture these days, amongst all of the twaddle you read about doing this that or the other to them, ever since the early 20th century sideboards have been upcycled and being re purposed. They still continue to be today, Many of these grand sideboards sat in the same house for a century or more and have been in the same family and they are only now ending up at auction where they don’t get much money, but people are buying them still and they are still breaking them up and it’s great because so much old furniture now is sadly broken up and dumped.
Increasing the value.
It felt strange in a way but if you see a beautiful mahogany sideboard at auction these days you’ll probably pick it up for £20 or £30 because they are so commercially unwanted. But actually if you do split them up and sell the base as a cupboard and the top as an over mantel, both of these commodities are actually worth quite a lot of money because they are fashionable and practical.
Changing Fashions.
In essence, we have seen what was once a fashionable and very popular piece of furniture virtually become obsolete. Because of their nature, many have been repurposed and gained a new lease of life.
Fashions change, I can remember at the auctions I used to go to when I was younger they wouldn’t take Ercol furniture for their sales and would recommend customers just take it to a tip, because they had no value. Now of course they’re like gold dust.
As lots of you reading this will know beautiful oak and mahogany furniture is now often simply broken up as it just does not have any value as there is no demand for it, unless it is of very high-quality. I remember when I was first in the trade a beautiful mahogany wardrobe would go for £250 to £300, which in today’s money is nearly £1000 and they start and they now sell for £50 and sometimes simply do not get a bid.