Sideboards
1990s Italian Modern Sideboards
Brass
Early 1900s English Antique Sideboards
Oak
Early 1900s English Edwardian Antique Sideboards
Mahogany
Early 1900s English Arts and Crafts Antique Sideboards
Glass, Mirror, Mahogany
Early 1900s English Antique Sideboards
Other
1990s French Post-Modern Sideboards
Bronze
Early 1900s American Arts and Crafts Antique Sideboards
Walnut
Early 1900s Chinese Chinese Export Antique Sideboards
Brass
1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Goatskin, Glass
Early 1900s English Arts and Crafts Antique Sideboards
Oak
Early 1900s English Arts and Crafts Antique Sideboards
Mahogany
Early 1900s English Antique Sideboards
Other
Early 1900s English Edwardian Antique Sideboards
Other
Early 1900s English Edwardian Antique Sideboards
Brass, Other
Early 1900s French Louis XVI Antique Sideboards
Bronze, Ormolu
Early 1900s English Victorian Antique Sideboards
Brass
Early 1900s Scottish Antique Sideboards
Oak
Early 1900s Italian Art Nouveau Antique Sideboards
Marble, Silver Plate
Early 1900s French Regency Revival Antique Sideboards
Bronze
Early 1900s French Louis XVI Antique Sideboards
Bronze, Ormolu
Early 1900s French Rococo Antique Sideboards
Marble
Early 1900s English Chippendale Antique Sideboards
Bronze
1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Glass, Wood
Early 1900s Austrian Vienna Secession Antique Sideboards
Marble, Brass
1990s French Sideboards
Gold Leaf, Metal
1990s Italian Modern Sideboards
Gold, Brass
Early 1900s Victorian Antique Sideboards
Maple
Early 1900s English Adam Style Antique Sideboards
Satinwood
Early 1900s French Louis XIV Antique Sideboards
Breccia Marble
Antique, New and Vintage Sideboards
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.