How many come up for sale each year?

Around fifteen come to market on Sellingantiques in a year, drawn from a wide pool of dealers. Forty-nine separate dealers have listed one, so no single dealer or region defines what turns up under the heading.

What wood are they usually made from?

Mahogany leads, named in 42 titles, with pine in 31 and oak in 13. Between them they account for most of what gets listed. Beyond those, titles name rosewood, walnut and burr walnut, satinwood and pitch pine. Marquetry appears on one piece only.

Were these made for shops or for homes?

Both. The form served domestic storage and, from the 18th and 19th centuries, shops, dispensaries and workshops that needed many small compartments without much floor space. Trade fitments make up a substantial minority of listings, and the trade is often named in the title: haberdashers, apothecary, chemist, drapers, ironmongers, gunsmiths, watchmakers, school and office.

Are any of them signed or stamped by a maker?

No maker names come through in this category. A scan of the descriptions returned none at all, stamped, labelled or attributed. Dealers describe these pieces by timber, size, drawer count and period instead, and that is what the titles carry.

Does painted pine sell for less than bare wood?

Not as a rule. Painted appears in eight titles, several qualified as original, period or Cumbrian paint, and those sit toward the top of the range. Plain and stained pine is where the lower end of the range sits. The distinction is between a surface treated as original and one treated as just a finish.

What are the more unusual examples listed?

A bamboo and embossed leather bank of about 1900, a North Indian bank of spice drawers, and a pine bank grained in paint to simulate rosewood. Non-English pieces are thin on the ground overall: three Danish pine and three French, one of them Empire. Marble tops turn up on four examples, three of them narrow or tall.