Antique Chiffoniers
CHIFFONIERS
A mahogany chiffonier with scrolled shelf supports. Several similar types appear in designs of this period. 1820-1830
A rosewood chiffonier with glazed door panels in gilt Gothic design frames. The shelf above is supported on ormolu pillars and has a gallery rail. There is a mirror at the back.
An elegant chiffonier with shelves above, brass latticed doors and bracket feet.
A chiffonier is basically a side cabinet, developed with a shelf or shelves above from the late eighteenth century. The term has come to be used rather loosely but is current in the antique trade to describe small cabinets with shelves for use as a small sideboard, incidental library or drawing room piece. It is really very difficult to be didactic as to where a cabinet and a chiffonier change places, but the examples in the section which follows are those generally described as chiffoniers.
A rosewood chiffonier with heavy turned and reeded pillars and brass latticed arched doors with silk backing.
Many chiffoniers of the Victorian period now on sale in the market are in fact small Victorian sideboards with the top rail or back removed and, possibly, a new shelf added. The really frequent `improvement’ of such pieces is to take a Victorian sideboard or cabinet, with its arched panelled doors, and remove the panels. The resulting door frame is then ’squared’ at the top to provide a more Georgian design and a brass lattice, with silk behind, is added to produce a ‘Regency’ piece.
Brass latticed doors Rosewood
A small mahogany chiffonier with a brass latticed door. The lattice could be a latter addition. The convex drawer design is typical of the period. 1840-1850
A mahogany chiffonier or sideboard with machine carved top rail and scrolled decoration.
A Regency mahogany chiffonier or cabinet, c.1825, with reeded shelves above and cross-banded doors with brass lattices backed by pleated silk. A simple and restrained example of a piece of furniture which originated as an incidental cupboard or commode.
A Regency mahogany chiffonier, c.1825, with a brass gallery around the upper shelf. The two supporting columns are also brass. This is a slightly later example where the style has become a little less restrained in the curving sides and feet. The brass lattices in the doors are again backed by pleated silk.
N.B. It is again useful to note that this piece of furniture could be described as a cabinet or commode and probably originated as a piece of lady’s incidental furniture.
A Regency chiffonier, c.1825, of rather more ornate type, often found in rosewood. The shelves have mirror backs and are supported by curved brackets in receding proportion. The sides are reeded and the doors latticed.
A Victorian mahogany chiffonier, c.1840, in well-figured wood with a drawer fitted flush under the top. There is another, floor level drawer under the solid, cross-banded cupboard doors. A pleasantly simple design.
A later Victorian chiffonier, c.1860, in carved mahogany with mirror back and glazed side doors. Electro-gilt metal mounts on such pieces replace the restrained brass of the Regency. Marble-topped versions without the mirror back but with mirrored doors are still common.
Tags: cabinet, chiffonier, CHIFFONIERS, cupboard, design frames, drawing room, Furniture, Gothic, mahogany, panelled doors, piece of furniture, Regency, sideboard, sideboards, silk, victorian period