Why are so many sold as pairs?

Bedsides were made for either side of a bed, so they left the workshop in twos. That is reflected on Sellingantiques, where 730 of 1,793 titles say "pair". The wording is worth reading closely. Dealers use "matched pair", "two similar" and "almost matching", and those are not the same claim.

What period does most of this furniture come from?

The dealers' own dating spans 1800 to 1950, and 1,318 listings carry a clean year. The 1920s alone accounts for 459 of them, with the 1900s, 1910s and 1930s close behind. Victorian decades are thinner: the 1880s and 1890s are the strongest, the 1860s and 1870s much lighter. Where a title says only "19th Century", and 332 do, it is a century-wide label.

Which woods turn up most often?

Oak leads at 331 titles, followed by walnut, mahogany and kingwood. Cherry, rosewood, satinwood and tulipwood appear in smaller numbers. Oak dominates the bedside and filing-cabinet end. Kingwood sits with the vitrines, and it is the wood that keeps company with ormolu and marquetry.

Are office filing cabinets really French cabinets?

They share the heading. Ninety titles name a filing cabinet and 83 a tambour front, a run of oak office furniture sold as single, double and triple tambour. Some are described as Art Deco, which fits the 1920s and 1930s weighting of the category as a whole.

What does Vernis Martin mean on a listing?

Painted and varnished decorative panels set into the doors and sides of a cabinet. It appears in 97 titles. It turns up almost entirely on the glazed branch, and repeatedly in the same title as kingwood, ormolu and marble.

How often do these come up for sale?

Around 142 are listed a year on Sellingantiques, and 202 different dealers have offered one. It is a category almost every general furniture dealer touches at some point. Alongside the pairs and vitrines, odd single pieces surface: a notaire's cartonnière, a bread-store panetière, a jeweller's shop display case, a bamboo drinks cabinet.

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Antique French Cabinets

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French case furniture for the bedroom and the drawing room: small bedside cupboards made to hold a chamber pot or a candle, and glazed vitrines made to show china and trinkets while keeping the dust off.