Anyone who has travelled about the countryside at all will know that there are still many fine wooden dressers about. Not necessarily “Welsh” ones either,for there are quite distinctive types to be found all over the country, from County Durham to Cornwall and from Staffordshire to Suffolk.

A few years ago The Farmers Weekly ran a competition in its Home Section for the best “Dressed Dressers“, i.e. examples which are not palely loitering unadorned at sales, but at home, gaily crowded with pottery, brass or pewter.

There were well over a hundred entries and for the first time one seemed to be able to get an idea of the different kinds of dressers there are, and—most interesting point— where they originated, for most of them were photographed in the houses where they were known to have been since they were built or housed.

The typical North Welsh pattern is rather like the one seen in the little drawing opposite. It is said that those from South Wales have cupboards below, but this is also true of dressers from Merioneth, some having doored compartments in the upper parts.

Our pictures also show two dressers which are North Country in type. One kind has three drawers at each end and one over a centrally placed cupboard, the other has three or four centrally placed drawers with a cupboard at each end. The sizes run from 5 feet to i i feet 6 inches.

Antique Collector MagazineIn the West Riding of Yorkshire you find many like this. The plate rack, which has characteristic guard rails, stands free of the lower part. This is interesting, for it seems to mark a development from the very earliest dressers, which were simply side tables or “sideboard tables” known as dresseurs or dressoirs where you “dressed”—or carved and spiced—the meat before bringing it to table. In fact, in some cases you find these shelves actually built into the wall of a room, with a freestanding dresser below it. In the North Country and East Anglia such shelves are called “Delft Racks”—an allusion to the delftware plates which once stood upon them.

The bobbined rails on the next dresser are said to be a characteristic of Breton types, and certainly the carving on this one suggests such an origin. But both bobbins and spindles can be found on indubitably English dressers in the Midlands or North Country. As for the carving, the men who did the carving in our churches must have been quite as capable of showing their skill on movables like dressers or chests.

It is to be seen a much more “posh” sort of dresser, which no doubt came from a house a little way up the social scale—though still not belonging to the fashionable world. This is truly “Country Georgian”; the cabriole legs show that it was made after Queen Anne’s time, probably well after, for older fashions lingered on in the country long after the smart people in London had passed on to some new craze. The brass-faced clock is a fine feature.

As we saw with cupboards, there are some foreigners among us in the way of dressers. The evidently Flemish or Dutch, for it bears along the lower part of the frieze the carved name “Anna MargretaHelmers” and the date “Anno 1787″. There was once another name on it, the owner tells me: “Geshe Helmers, Anno 1784″; but this had to be removed for repairs. On the canopy overhead the date is carved: “Anno 1702″.

Another foreigner, in a more modern version of the Dutch style and with more intricate carving of figures and tracery, is shown below it. One wonders how these dressers came into this country. As part of the possessions of refugees like the Flemish weavers, possibly, or maybe brought home triumphantly by some sea-captain.

The sideboard is another article of furniture with a very long history. It really started as a side table (or “sideboard table“) on which the carving was done, or from which dishes were served to the dining table. It was rather higher than the main table, for ease of working. In the eighteenth century, sideboards with brass galleries at the back were often flanked by a pair of pedestals.

A much daintier affair was the Hepplewhite–Sheraton bow-fronted sideboard with two cupboards reaching only halfway to the floor. One of these would be fitted up as a cellaret to provide iced water for the wine. The same type is seen with a serpentine or even a concave front—convenient, legend has it, for convex butlers.

Unfortunately, these smaller sideboards are in such demand that prices have shot up to the ceiling. But this is not the case with the massive sideboard of the Victorian era, with its capacious cupboards and shelves, large back mirrors and, usually, rich carving. If you can only find room for such gargantuan affairs you will have no trouble in acquiring them cheaply.

Scarcity of the handier and prettier sideboards has led to close consideration of the sideboard’s smaller relative, the chiffonier. This sometimes very attractive piece, though often brought into disrepute in horrid reproduction, was originally used for storing chiffons, lace, etc. Early in the nineteenth century it was a small neat affair, but as time went on it became bigger and bigger.

The early chiffoniers are well worth having, also some nice ones made at the turn of last century in the renewed enthusiasm for Sheraton. Some of them have doors with pleated silk panels, protected by metal grilles. But a great many of these old chiffoniers are today being unnecessarily clobbered with bits of new gilt metalwork— which is a pity.

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