Antique Night Table
An antique night table provides beside storage and surface space while anchoring a bedroom period scheme.
Antique Night Table
An antique night table encompasses bedside cabinets, pot cupboards, small chests of drawers and occasional lamp tables spanning the Georgian era through to the Art Deco period.
Makers designed these pieces in mahogany, walnut and oak, with French Provincial, Regency and Victorian interpretations appearing frequently in the available inventory.
Buyers encounter single examples alongside matched pairs originating from English, French and Italian workshops across the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Materials and construction
Cabinet makers utilised dense timbers such as mahogany, walnut and burr walnut, often applying flame veneers and marquetry inlay to principal surfaces.
Many items incorporate inset marble tops, brass handles, and delicate satinwood stringing alongside traditional dovetail joinery on drawer construction.
Antique Night Table Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical asking prices for night table among the pieces listed under this phrase on Sellingantiques today, from the lower quarter to the upper quarter. They describe what is for sale here now, not the wider market.
Some nineteenth-century examples cleverly disguise themselves as occasional tables while secretly housing interior chamber pots.
Craftsmanship and proportion
Superior examples demonstrate careful timber selection, where figured veneers match symmetrically across drawer fronts and cupboard doors rather than appearing haphazard.
Fine construction shows in the weight and grain of secondary woods used inside drawers, the crispness of inlaid marquetry, and the original integrity of brass hardware.
Maple and Co·Druce and Co·Sormani
The Antique Night Table Glossary
- Pot cupboard
- A small bedside cabinet originally built to enclose a chamber pot behind a single panelled door.
- Marquetry
- Decorative patterns created by fitting thin pieces of wood veneer and other materials onto a structural surface.
- Tray top
- A raised moulded edge around the upper surface of a small table designed to prevent items from rolling off.
- Commodino
- A small Italian bedside cabinet or chest, often featuring elaborate inlay or painted decoration.
- Flame mahogany
- Timber cut from the branch junction of a mahogany tree to produce a distinctive flickering flame-like grain pattern.
Antique Night Table: Frequently Asked Questions
What is an antique night table?
An antique night table is a small bedside cabinet, cupboard or table produced prior to the mid-twentieth century.
These pieces served to hold chamber pots, candles, books and water jugs before fitted bedroom furniture became standard.
How do I choose between a cupboard and drawers?
Cupboard variants, often called pot cupboards, conceal shelving behind a door to keep clutter completely out of sight.
Drawer versions offer segmented storage for smaller nighttime essentials while maintaining a compact bedside footprint.
How do I date an antique night table?
Dating relies on identifying timber choices, construction techniques, hardware types, and stylistic influences from periods like Georgian or Art Deco.
Secondary woods inside drawers and the presence of hand-cut dovetails help confirm the age of older pieces.
Can I use mismatched bedside tables?
Matched pairs remain traditional, but single pieces or complementary matched pairs introduce character into eclectic interior schemes.
Matching heights and proportional scale matter more than identical finishes when pairing disparate bedside tables together.