What's the difference between a court cupboard and a press cupboard?

A press cupboard has a fully enclosed upper stage. A court cupboard may have an open one, with the enclosed section above an open base. In practice the site uses the words interchangeably. Press appears in thirteen titles, court in far more, and the same body of furniture sits under both.

Are Welsh deuddarn cupboards common on the site?

Welsh appears in 22 titles out of 208, deuddarn in twelve, so roughly one in ten of the category carries Welsh nomenclature. The proportion is rising in live stock. The three-tier cwpwrdd tridarn is a different matter. It turns up only a couple of times in the whole archive, and sits high in the range when it does.

How old are most of these cupboards?

The dated field runs from 1670 to 1930. Fifty-seven listings sit in the 17th century, twelve more before 1700, thirty-five in the 18th and twelve in the 19th, with five placed in the 16th. Most entries are century buckets rather than precise years. Only 45 carry a clean date, and that is often because the piece has a year carved into it.

Why do some titles give an exact year like 1685?

Because the year is cut into the wood, generally on the frieze, sometimes alongside initials. Dated appears in ten titles. Years read off cupboards in this archive include 1598, 1633, 1677, 1678, 1685, 1696, 1701, 1711, 1713, 1717, 1721, 1723, 1728 and 1743.

Do these come in anything other than oak?

Oak accounts for 177 of the 208 titles. Walnut, elm and fruitwood each appear in single instances, one of the walnut pieces being an Italian carved cabinet. Everything else in the category is oak, plain or carved, with carving named in 61 titles.

What are the 1920s Jacobean style cupboards?

They're revival pieces, made in oak in the older manner from the later 19th century onward. Fourteen listings are dated to the 1920s, with more Edwardian and 1900s entries behind them. Titles style them Jacobean, Jacobethan, Elizabethan or Renaissance Revival, and Ipswich oak carving is named on three. As a group they sit at the lower end of the range.

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Antique Court Cupboards

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A joined oak cupboard in two or three stages, with an enclosed upper section over an open or enclosed base, made for storing food and displaying plate in a hall or parlour.