How many come up for sale each year?

Around 35 breakfront sideboards come to market on Sellingantiques in a year, and 103 different dealers have listed one. That spread matters. This isn't a specialist's corner of the trade; it's a form that turns up in general stock across the country.

What wood are they usually made from?

Mahogany is the default, named in more titles than every other timber put together. Walnut comes next, then rosewood. The archive also throws up satinwood, amboyna, kingwood, coromandel, goncalo alves, padouk, pollard oak, black walnut and burr maple, each turning up only once or twice.

Does a 19th Century date mean anything precise?

No. "19th Century" is the single commonest label in the category, and it sits alongside "Victorian", "Regency" and "Georgian" as a period estimate rather than a year. Of 308 listings, 137 carry a clean year. Where decades are stated they gather in the 1860s, 1880s, 1850s and 1900s. A date between 1920 and 1950 points to a piece made in period taste.

Are credenzas and chiffoniers included in this category?

Yes, and in quantity. Victorian credenzas run to 53 titles, chiffoniers to 25, and both sit under the same heading as true sideboards. Dresser bases, buffets, pedestal sideboards and side cabinets appear here too. Side cabinet wordings alone account for a large slice of the titles.

Which pieces sit at the top of the range?

Continental cabinet work rather than English mahogany. Boulle, pietra dura and porcelain- or ormolu-mounted side cabinets take the highest positions, including a pair sold together. Plain Victorian and Edwardian mahogany sits at the bottom, with painted pine dresser bases lower still.

What unusual examples have turned up?

A Swedish breakfront buffet, a Gothic sideboard and an Aesthetic Movement credenza have each appeared once. So have a Tunbridgeware-inlaid four-door cabinet, an Art Deco sideboard and a Victorian pine dresser base in original paint. None of them recurs.

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Antique Breakfront Sideboards

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A breakfront sideboard is a dining or serving-wall case piece whose front is stepped, the centre section projecting forward of the flanking sections, built to hold linen, plate and glass along a long wall.