Sideboards
Late 19th Century French Napoleon III Antique Sideboards
Marble
Early 19th Century French Louis XVI Antique Sideboards
Wood
1950s Vintage Sideboards
Bamboo, Rattan
21st Century and Contemporary American Sideboards
Bronze
1930s Vintage Sideboards
Wood
2010s American Modern Sideboards
Oak
1960s Belgian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Sideboards
Marble
19th Century French Louis XVI Antique Sideboards
Marble, Ormolu
1970s Belgian Brutalist Vintage Sideboards
Wood
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Hardwood
Early 20th Century American Louis XVI Sideboards
Brass
Mid-18th Century French Louis XV Antique Sideboards
Walnut, Wood, Oak
21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese French Provincial Sideboards
Wood
Late 20th Century American Georgian Sideboards
Brass
Mid-19th Century French French Provincial Antique Sideboards
Iron
19th Century Rustic Antique Sideboards
Wood
19th Century French Louis Philippe Antique Sideboards
Paint
Mid-19th Century English Antique Sideboards
Pine
19th Century French Antique Sideboards
Wood
19th Century Swedish Gustavian Antique Sideboards
19th Century English George III Antique Sideboards
19th Century Swedish Louis XVI Antique Sideboards
Paint
1890s French French Provincial Antique Sideboards
Early 19th Century Swedish Neoclassical Antique Sideboards
Wood
19th Century Swedish Gustavian Antique Sideboards
Early 19th Century French Louis XV Antique Sideboards
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.