Antique Australian cedar chiffonier

Australian cedar, also known as red cedar or Toona ciliata, is a species of tree that is native to eastern Australia. It is known for its high-quality timber, which has a distinctive red color, fine grain, and a pleasant aroma. In the 19th century, Australian cedar was widely used in the manufacture of furniture, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom.

The timber was considered to be a highly desirable material for furniture making due to its strength, durability, and natural resistance to rot and insects. It was also relatively easy to work with and could be finished to more... a high standard and was used to make a wide range of furniture items, including tables, chairs, wardrobes, and chests of drawers.

Australian cedar furniture was particularly popular in the Victorian era and was considered to be of very high quality. However, over-harvesting of the tree led to a decline in the availability of the timber and as a result, the use of Australian cedar in furniture making decreased in the 20th century. Today, Australian cedar furniture is considered to be quite rare and valuable by collectors. less...

An early 19th century innovation, chiffoniers continued to be made virtually until the end of the Victorian period. It usually consists of a two-door cupboard, with a long cutlery drawer and a shaped back, with one or two shelves, supported by spindles for ornaments and such like.

Regency chiffoniers were quite small and delicate, with the doors often decorated with pleated silk behind brass grilles. The backs were usually square, sometimes with a triangular pediment, although from the 1820s they often featured the carved Regency scroll.

Many Australian cedar versions have simple Doric columns and recessed panelled doors. Victorian more... chiffoniers tended to take on the characteristics of the Rococo revival with a notable increase in carved ornament and scrollwork around the serpentine-shaped backs, and the size became more substantial. Some were of breakfront design.

During the later part of the 19th century, they tended to supplant the sideboard in many dining rooms. While some early chiffoniers had marble tops, usually white in colour, most available on the Australian market have solid timber tops. less...

There are several distinct types of sideboard. The Georgian sideboard was a long narrow table, fitted with cutlery drawers and cellaret cupboards, used as a serving table in dining rooms. Most examples are at least five feet long.

Although sideboards date from the mid-18th century, their development is usually associated with the designs of Sheraton. Sideboards may be straight fronted, curved at either end, or sometimes have a recessed breakfront. The latter was partly to lighten the effect of a large piece of furniture and partly, writes Sheraton, 'to secure the butler from the jostles of the other servants' more... .

The central portion of the sideboard, beneath the long drawer, was usually arched with semicircular lunettes, either carved or often strung. The legs were sometimes turned, but more generally were tapered, often standing on spade or block feet. Georgian sideboards always have six legs one at each corner, one on either side of the central recess. Four legged sideboards were not introduced until the second decade of the 19th century.

Sideboards were usually made of well-figured mahogany or, in Australia, cedar or beefwood veneer, though very few colonial examples appear to have survived. They were sometimes cross banded, strung and inlaid with decorative panels of contrasting timber.

Another type of sideboard appeared in the late 19th century, based more or less on the Renaissance revival forms associated with designers Talbert and Eastlake. It consisted of a two-door cupboard, usually panelled and carved, with a mirrored back, containing shelves and a hutched or overhanging cornice, supported by turned or carved columns.

There are many variants, but the lines and angles were much squarer, handles were often of pressed metal alloy, and by the time the sideboard reached its full Edwardian flowering, it often boasted broken or swan-neck pediments, reeded and fluted decorations, and shallow machine-made carvings of shells, rosettes and other foliage.

The style continued to be made in mahogany, oak, maple, pine or cedar until after the first world war. During the 1920s, and under the influence of the modern movement, furniture forms became much simpler and less cluttered, taking on the characteristics pioneered by the Arts and Crafts designers a third of a century before. It should always be remembered that it may take a generation before an original design, breaking with tradition, becomes fully established in popular taste.

From around 1900 the size of sideboards began to decrease, in order to fit the smaller dining rooms of the day, although this example would still require a substantial room to display it properly. less...