What does breakfront actually mean?

The front isn't flat. The central section, usually holding a tall mirrored or panelled door, projects forward of the narrower cupboards either side of it. A couple of listings in the whole sample describe an inverted breakfront, where the centre recedes and the wings project instead.

Which timber is most common?

Mahogany, by a wide margin: 140 of 238 titles name it, often paired with Victorian. The list runs much wider though. Walnut, burr walnut, satinwood, satin birch, rosewood, ash, oak, pollard oak, pitch pine, plain pine, maple, tulipwood, ebony and lacquer all appear.

How old are these wardrobes usually?

Victorian dominates the dated field with 93 listings, and another 43 are given simply as 19th century, which is accurate only to a century. Sixty-one listings carry a clean year, from 1800 to 1930. Edwardian, Georgian and Regency form the tails, and a few sampled titles claim the 18th century, including one at around 1780.

Can a piece this size be moved?

Several titles advertise the fact that the wardrobe dismantles into sections, one specifying six. That's the standard expectation for furniture of this scale. The phrase to look for in a title is breaks down into sections.

Are there French examples?

Yes, and they're the one consistent non-British seam. Thirteen titles use armoire, most of them carved oak or mahogany dated between about 1890 and 1920, with a Louis XVI piece among them. Everything else in the category is overwhelmingly English.

A wardrobe where hanging space is combined with a fitted bank of drawers, trays or slides behind one of the wings. Thirty-two titles use the term. Combination wardrobe means the same thing. Both arrangements appear disproportionately among the higher-priced pieces.

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Antique Breakfront Wardrobes

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A large bedroom press with its centre section stepped forward of the flanking cupboards, built to hold hanging clothes on one side and drawers, trays or sliding shelves on the other.