What is the most common type of wall cabinet?

A mahogany or oak cabinet with a glazed door. Mahogany accounts for a little over a quarter of titles and oak for close to a fifth. Within that, the hanging corner cupboard is the most identifiable form, and it makes up a good deal more of current stock than of the archive as a whole.

How old are they usually?

The dealer-entered dates run from 1750 to 1950. Only about 126 of 307 listings give a clean year, so period labels do much of the work: "19th Century" is the largest bucket, then Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian. Where decades are recorded, the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s outnumber the Victorian decades. Eighteenth-century pieces appear, but they're scarce, and nothing in the archive predates 1750.

Are shop and apothecary cabinets part of this category?

Yes, and they run across the whole range. Apothecary, chemist, pharmacy, jeweller, haberdashery, dentist, gun, tool and key cabinets all appear. Cabinets sign-written for chocolate advertising recur often enough to form a small genre. Documented shop and dispensary cases sit toward the top of the range.

Do wall cabinets come in pairs?

Sometimes. "Pair" appears in a small number of titles, around one in thirty. Pairs gather noticeably in the upper half of the range, and the highest-reaching entry in the samples is a nineteenth-century pair of English hanging wall cabinets.

Which timbers turn up besides mahogany and oak?

Pine and painted country cupboards make up a small branch of their own. Above them sit rosewood, satinwood, kingwood, burr walnut and amboyna. Single appearances include yew, chestnut, pollard oak, burr elm, specimen wood and Florentine giltwood. Not everything is timber either: brass wall cabinets turn up several times, with one bronze and one steel example.

How many come to market each year?

Around thirty-four a year on Sellingantiques, spread across 111 different dealers over the run of the archive. That works out at fewer than three each. It's a category most dealers meet occasionally rather than specialise in.

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Antique Wall Cabinets

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A small case made to hang on a wall rather than stand on the floor, with a glazed or panelled door, used for displaying china, storing household oddments or fitting out a shop.