Antique Chiffoniers
A chiffonier is a low two-door side cupboard, usually with a shelf or ledge back, made from the early 19th century as enclosed dining-room storage for china, linen or bottles.
Antique Chiffoniers
The form arrived in British furniture in the early 19th century as a compact alternative to the full pedestal sideboard, suited to smaller houses. Low cupboard below, shelved or ledged back above for display. Dealers use the words chiffonier, sideboard and side cabinet for the same thing, often in one title: of 809 listings on Sellingantiques, 254 also say sideboard and 111 say side cabinet.
Mahogany dominates, at 426 titles, with a Victorian or William IV two-door cabinet the version you'll meet most often. Rosewood follows at 212, much of it Regency, and some of that inlaid with brass line or scroll work. Together the two timbers cover better than three-quarters of everything offered. Walnut is a smaller group, 56 titles, where burr veneers, mirror backs and credenza forms cluster.
Beyond the plain two-door, the record holds marble tops, mirrored upstands, breakfront and serpentine fronts, and three- and four-door cabinets. Scale runs wide: 57 titles say small, diminutive or of neat proportions, while others are full pedestal sideboards. Only two listings state a measurement at all, one at 91cm wide and one at 183cm, which brackets how far the form stretches.
Dating is mostly by reign. Regency appears 171 times and Victorian 149, but the largest single bucket is the vague 19th Century tag at 198, and only 233 listings carry a clean year. Decade tags concentrate in the 1860s and 1850s. The dated field runs 1800 to 1930, with a few 18th-century claims and nine 1920s pieces at the edges.
Where The Range Widens
Timber and figure do most of the work. A title that says nothing more than mahogany chiffonier sits at the bottom; flame and figured mahogany, burr walnut, pollard oak, satinwood, coromandel and Goncalo Alves sit far above it. The scarcest timbers appear once or twice in the whole archive. At the other end, simulated rosewood, chalk paint and sign-written finishes form a minor strand of their own.
Decoration and shaping lift a piece next. Brass inlay recurs among the highest-priced Regency rosewood, gilt-brass mounts and pierced brass grilles with it. Breakfront and serpentine fronts, and cabinets of three or four doors, sit well above the standard two-door. Marble tops and mirrored upstands move a piece up through the middle of the range rather than to the top of it.
Small scale cuts both ways. Diminutive, petite and dwarf turn up at both ends, but combined with good figure or a Regency date they recur on the better pieces. Named cabinetmaking counts, as do the four secretaire chiffoniers in the archive, all near the top. Pairs surface only a handful of times, and those sit at the extreme top.
Antique Chiffoniers Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for chiffoniers, 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.
Chiffonier comes from the French chiffonnier, a rag picker, from chiffon, a rag. It began as a place to stow odds and ends.
Gillows of Lancaster
The Antique Chiffoniers Glossary
- Chiffonier
- Low two-door side cupboard, usually with a shelf or ledge back, used for dining-room storage.
- Side cabinet
- The interchangeable dealer term for the same form, used in 111 titles.
- Sideboard base
- A chiffonier or sideboard offered without its upper shelf back or mirror back. Twenty-three titles use the phrase.
- Breakfront
- A front whose centre section projects forward of the flanking sections. Twenty-four titles.
- Flame mahogany
- Veneer cut to show a flame-like figure running up the centre of a panel. Thirty-four titles.
- Brass grille
- Pierced brass panel fitted to a door in place of solid wood or glass, and several titles cite gilt brass grills.
Antique Chiffoniers: Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a chiffonier and a sideboard?
In dealer usage on Sellingantiques, very little. Of 809 listings, 254 also carry the word sideboard and 111 say side cabinet, frequently in the same title as chiffonier.
The distinction that does hold is scale and shape: the chiffonier is the low two-door cupboard with a shelf back, a compact alternative to the full pedestal sideboard.
Which timber turns up most often?
Mahogany, in 426 of the titles, with flame and figured cuts a recurring note within that group.
Rosewood is second at 212, much of it Regency and some brass-inlaid. Between them the two timbers account for better than three-quarters of the category. Walnut, including burr walnut, is a smaller group at 56.
How old are most of them?
Nineteenth century, though the dating in listings is mostly by reign. Regency appears 171 times, Victorian 149, and the plain 19th Century tag 198 times.
Only 233 listings give a clean year, so a stated period is often a style label rather than a researched date. Decade tags gather in the 1860s and 1850s.
Do chiffoniers have mirrors?
Some do. Fifteen titles specify a mirror back, a framed looking-glass set in the upstand behind the top, and mirror backs are rising as a share of current stock.
They cluster with the walnut and credenza-form cabinets. Where the shelf back or mirror back is absent, dealers tend to call the piece a sideboard base.
Are marble-topped versions common?
Not common, but they turn up throughout. Marble appears in 27 titles, 22 of them saying marble top outright.
They sit through the middle and upper-middle of the range rather than at the top of it.
How often do chiffoniers come up for sale?
Around 76 a year are listed on Sellingantiques, and 153 different dealers have offered one.
That spread tells you something about the form: it's furniture almost every general furniture dealer handles at some point, rather than a specialist line.