Which woods are most common?

Mahogany and walnut, in almost equal numbers, account for the bulk of the category between them. Burr walnut is specified in a tenth of titles. Beyond those two, the timber vocabulary is wide: oak, pine, rosewood, satinwood, amboyna, kingwood, pollard oak, satin birch, cedar, teak, yew and bamboo all appear in titles.

What is a pier cabinet?

A tall, narrow, single-door cabinet designed to stand against the pier of wall between two windows. It's the second most common form catalogued here after the display cabinet. Walnut is the timber most often attached to the term in listings, and inlay is a frequent companion.

Are bedside cabinets sold in pairs?

Pairs turn up throughout the category, and bedside cabinets and pot cupboards are the form most often offered that way. Mahogany and walnut lead the bedside group, and marble tops appear among them.

How many drawers do collectors' cabinets have?

Listings count them by the drawer. Samples run from six or eight at the modest end up through sixteen, twenty and twenty-four. At the top sit thirty-six and forty-drawer mahogany cabinets, one of them with a Carrara marble top. A handful still hold their collections, including tropical insects, moths and butterflies, and one slide cabinet with 280 microscope slides.

Do shop fittings come under this heading?

They do, as a steady minority. Chemists', apothecaries', dentists', jewellers', haberdashers' and drapers' cabinets all appear, along with glazed shop display cases. Shop counters several feet long are listed too, so scale in this branch runs a good deal larger than the drawing-room forms.

Why do so few carry a maker's name?

Only three names clear three dealers across the whole archive: Maple & Co, Edwards & Roberts and Gillows. The great bulk of the category reaches market with no name at all. Where a name does appear, it may be stamped, it may be on a paper label, or the listing may simply say attributed.

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Victorian Cabinets

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Nineteenth-century British case furniture with doors, drawers or glazed fronts, made for showing china and curios, standing beside a bed, holding sheet music or a collection, or fitting out a shop.