Chinese Alter Sideboard
20th Century Chinese Modern Sideboards
Teak
Antique Mid-19th Century Asian Ming Sideboards
Elm
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Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Ming Side Tables
Fruitwood
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Qing Sideboards
Elm
Vintage 1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Lounge Chairs
Brass
Antique 1860s Chinese Other Console Tables
Elm
20th Century Chinese Chippendale Cabinets
Wood
Vintage 1980s Chinese Chinese Export Sideboards
Brass
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Qing Console Tables
Walnut
Mid-20th Century Chinese Sideboards
Elm
Vintage 1920s Scottish Sideboards
Walnut
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Ming Sideboards
Metal
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Qing Sideboards
Elm
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Qing Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Ash
Antique Early 18th Century Chinese Qing Sideboards
Elm
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Chinese Chippendale Console Tables
Wood
1990s Chinese Bohemian Sideboards
Wood, Elm, Paint
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
Vintage 1970s Danish Scandinavian Modern Credenzas
Teak, Wood, Plywood
Early 20th Century Asian Chinese Export Sideboards
Wood
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Ming Side Tables
Metal
Antique Mid-18th Century Chinese Rustic Sideboards
Wood
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Ming Sideboards
Elm
Finding the Right sideboards for You
Once simply boards made of wood that were used to support ceremonial dining, sideboards have taken on much greater importance 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.
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. 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 are more to your liking than an 18th-century mahogany sideboard with decorative inlays by Hepplewhite, 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, new and vintage sideboards to choose from.
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