Why are so many dressers sold without their tops?

The dresser was originally a two-stage piece: a lower case of drawers or cupboards, and a shelved rack above it for display. Many racks were separated from their bases over the course of two or three centuries. What survives and sells is the base. Only a couple of titles on Sellingantiques mention a rack or gallery back at all, and one is offered explicitly with or without its top.

What timber are they usually made from?

Oak dominates, with 1,628 titles naming it, and pine follows at 274. Between them they cover the large majority of the category. The rest is a long tail: mahogany at 91, elm at 70, walnut at 45, then cherry, chestnut, fruitwood, sycamore, ash, rosewood and a single yew-wood piece.

Are Welsh dresser bases a separate thing?

Welsh appears in 172 titles, second only to English at 352, so it is the strongest single regional label in the category. Individual pieces are placed more tightly still, to the Conwy Valley, Anglesey, Montgomeryshire and Tregaron. A named region tends to sit higher in the range than an unattributed country base. English regions turn up too, including the Yorkshire Dales, Westmorland, Cumberland, Shropshire, Cheshire and Lancashire.

How old are most of these pieces?

The broad 1700 to 1850 span holds most of them. "18th Century" alone covers 650 listings, with Georgian at 504 and 19th Century at 466, and those labels overlap heavily. Earlier and later groups are much smaller. The 17th century accounts for 51 listings, Victorian for 138 and the 1920s for 109.

What is a pot board for?

It is the low flat shelf running between the front legs of an open base, made to take heavy pots, crocks and serving dishes below the drawers. It is also the feature that defines the archive's best-known form. Pot board and potboard together name 240 titles, most of them Georgian oak, and they sit at the upper end of the category.

Do continental pieces appear under this heading?

Yes, as a small and steady minority. French leads with 72 titles, mostly enfilade buffets with a run of doors. Swedish, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Hungarian, East German and Chinese bases each appear only a handful of times. The one piece furthest from the British country tradition is an 18th-century Italian credenza.

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Antique Sideboard Dressers

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A dresser base is the lower half of a country dresser, a long low case of drawers or cupboards used for storage and for serving food, sold on its own without the shelved rack that once sat above it.