How many come up for sale each year?

About six a year come to market on Sellingantiques, drawn from 89 listings in total. Forty-eight different dealers have listed one, so a dealer generally handles a single example rather than a steady stream.

What wood are they usually made from?

Mahogany is far in front, named in 26 of 89 titles. After that the spread is wide: pine, oak, teak, deal, rosewood, fruitwood, walnut and burr walnut all appear. Burr walnut turns up on two dentist's cabinets.

How many drawers do they have?

Stated counts in the samples run from six at the low end up to a Chinese cabinet of 45. Twenty, 24, 28 and 32-drawer pieces sit in between. A 28-drawer cabinet made for microscope slides is one of the sampled collectors' pieces.

Are apothecary cabinets ever sold in pairs?

Yes, and more often than you'd expect. Wall cabinets, drug runs, countertop display cabinets and collectors' cabinets all appear as matched twos. Five sampled titles are pairs, including an Italian pair and a pair of ornithological collectors' cabinets. All of them sit toward the top of the range.

Do any come from outside Britain?

Chinese apothecary cabinets appear three times in the samples, one of them described as Qing dynasty period. That's the only recurring non-European origin. Single appearances include a French chest of drawers, a Spanish walnut low cabinet and an Italian pair. A Welsh-attributed mahogany cabinet also turns up once.

Which are the oldest pieces listed?

The dealer-entered date field itself starts at 1800 and runs to 1930. Two sampled titles reach further back with era words rather than years: a Georgian oak spice cabinet and a Spanish walnut low cabinet, both given as 18th century.