Chinese Alter Sideboard
20th Century Chinese Modern Sideboards
Teak
Antique Mid-19th Century Asian Ming Sideboards
Elm
Recent Sales
Antique Early 19th Century Asian Furniture
Elm, Lacquer
Early 20th Century Chinese Sideboards
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Chinese Export Console Tables
Elm
Early 20th Century Asian Chinese Export Sideboards
Wood
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Ming Side Tables
Metal
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21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese Modern End Tables
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Chinese Export Furniture
Elm
20th Century Chinese Chinoiserie Furniture
Hardwood
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Qing Sideboards
Brass
Antique Late 19th Century Japanese Meiji Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Wood, Cedar
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Qing Cabinets
Walnut
2010s Vietnamese Sideboards
Oak
Early 20th Century Japanese Meiji Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Cedar
21st Century and Contemporary Russian Brutalist Commodes and Chests of D...
Oak
Vintage 1940s French Mid-Century Modern Buffets
Oak
Antique 19th Century Chinese Qing Cabinets
Brass
Antique 19th Century Chinese Qing Cabinets
Brass
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Qing Cabinets
Brass
Mid-20th Century Chinese Rustic Furniture
Wood, Elm, Lacquer, Paint
Vintage 1940s French Brutalist Buffets
Oak
Finding the Right Sideboards for You
An antique or vintage sideboard today is a sophisticated and stylish component in sumptuous dining rooms of every shape, size and decor scheme, as well as a statement of its own, showcased in art galleries and museums.
Once simply boards made of wood that were used to support ceremonial dining, sideboards have taken on much greater importance as case pieces since their modest first appearance. In Italy, the sideboard was basically a credenza, a solid furnishing with cabinet doors. It was initially intended as an integral piece of any dining room where the wealthy gathered for meals in the southern European country.
Later, in England and France, sideboards retained their utilitarian purpose — a place to keep hot water for rinsing silverware and from which to serve cold drinking water — but would evolve into double-bodied structures that allowed for the display of serveware and utensils on open shelves. We would likely call these buffets, as they’re taller than a sideboard. (Trust us — there is an order to all of this!)
The sideboard is often deemed a buffet in the United States, from the French buffet à deux corps, which referred to a storage and display case. However, a buffet technically possesses a tiered or shelved superstructure for displaying attractive kitchenware and certainly makes more sense in the context of buffet dining — abundant meals served for crowds of people.
Every imaginable iteration of the sideboard has taken shape over the years. Furniture maker and artist Paul Evans, whose work has been the subject of various celebrated museum exhibitions, created ornamented, welded and patinated sideboards for Directional Furniture, collections such as the Cityscape series that speak to his place in revolutionary brutalist furniture design as much as they echo the origins of these sturdy, functional structures centuries ago.
If mid-century modern sideboards or vintage Danish sideboards are more to your liking than an 18th-century mahogany sideboard with decorative inlays in the Hepplewhite style, the particularly elegant pieces crafted by designers Hans Wegner, Edward Wormley or Florence Knoll are often sought by today’s collectors.
Whether you have a specific era or style in mind or you’re open to browsing a vast collection to find the right fit, 1stDibs has a variety of antique and vintage sideboards to choose from.
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