Antique Low Boys
A low boy is a table-height chest of two or three shallow drawers on four legs, made to serve as a dressing or side table.
What Is A Low Boy?
The form emerged in Britain in the early 18th century: a low chest of drawers standing on legs, at the height of a table, used for dressing or as a side table and often made to stand beside or beneath a taller chest. Country workshops carried on making it through the Georgian period, and it was revived in period styles in the early 20th century.
What you are most likely to meet on Sellingantiques is an English oak low boy, dated by the dealer as 18th century or Georgian. Oak is the defining timber, named in 38 titles. Walnut follows with 25 and mahogany 14. Between them those three account for nearly every piece listed.
Almost a quarter of titles call the object a table rather than a low boy, usually a side table, so the same thing is catalogued under two names. Cabriole legs and shaped friezes are named in a handful of titles, and a small run of listings describes painted rather than bare or polished timber.
Dating is broad. Only 15 of 92 listings carry a clean year, the rest sitting in the buckets "18th Century" (37) and "Georgian" (26). Beyond that the profile turns early 20th century, with Edwardian, 1910s and 1920s dating on the revival pieces. Reign names run from William & Mary through to George III, several of them qualified as "style".
Where The Range Splits
Timber and figure set the top. Figured and burr walnut and good mahogany carry the highest-priced titles, while plain Georgian oak sits across the middle and lower range. That is the single clearest divide in the category, and it tracks how much the dealer says about the grain.
Period beats revival. Listings naming a reign outright, or a circa year such as 1730, sit at the top; "Queen Anne Style", "William & Mary Style" and early 20th-century mahogany sit in the lower half. Precision of attribution moves with it, the cheapest examples offering only "Georgian" or "18th Century".
Construction named in the title lifts a piece: cabriole legs, a shaped frieze, cross banding, a cross stretcher. Scale works the other way, with small mahogany examples among the cheapest. Completeness counts too, and the one matched pair of George II mahogany low boys in the archive is near the very top.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for low boys, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Low boy titles on Sellingantiques run the whole early Georgian sequence of reigns: William & Mary, Queen Anne, George I, George II and George III.
The Antique Low Boys Glossary
- Low boy
- A low chest of two or three drawers on legs, at table height, used as a dressing or side table.
- Side table
- How a good many of these titles describe the same object; the two names are used interchangeably in this category.
- Style
- As in "Queen Anne Style", it signals a later piece made in an earlier manner rather than a piece of that reign.
- Cabriole leg
- An S-curved leg, named in several titles as the supporting form beneath the drawers.
- Frieze
- The apron below the top, sometimes shaped, as in "shaped frieze".
- Burr walnut
- Veneer cut from a burr growth, giving a dense swirling figure; it recurs through the walnut group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are low boys also called side tables?
Because dealers use both names for the same object. Almost a quarter of titles on Sellingantiques call the piece a table, most often a side table.
The form was used as a dressing table and a side table from the start, so the two descriptions sit side by side in the listings. One 18th-century oak example is titled as a desk and a painted piece as a lamp table.
What timber are most low boys made from?
Oak dominates, named in 38 titles. Walnut accounts for 25 and mahogany 14, and between them the three timbers cover nearly every piece in the archive.
Elm turns up in two examples, once alongside walnut. A small run of listings describes painted low boys, the one recurring surface treatment other than bare or polished timber.
How old is a Georgian low boy?
"Georgian" and "18th Century" are the two dominant dated fields, at 26 and 37 listings, and both are broad shorthand rather than a datable year.
Only 15 of 92 listings carry a clean year. The earliest are two pieces dated 1750 and the latest three dated 1920.
Dated fields and titles sometimes disagree: one Queen Anne example is titled 1820 but filed as 18th century.
Are low boys always English?
Overwhelmingly, yes. English appears in 12 titles and the archive is dominated by English oak, walnut and mahogany examples.
Non-English origins turn up once each: a Dutch low boy, a Swedish one, and an oak example given to the Isle of Man.
Do low boys come in pairs?
Rarely. The only pair across the whole archive is a matched pair of mid-18th-century George II mahogany low boys on cabriole legs.
"Matched" means the two were brought together rather than made as one. That listing sits near the very top of the range.
How often do low boys come up for sale?
Around nine a year come to market on Sellingantiques, and 34 different dealers have listed one.
That makes it a category most dealers meet occasionally rather than stock as a line.