Antique Cupboard

CLOTHES PRESSES AND WARDROBES
Not strictly a press, but this cabinet on chest shows the early stages of evolution. Typical features of the walnut period include quartering of veneers and lip mouldings on the drawer edges.1720-1740
Assuming it is right and not a bottom half with cabinet, and depending on the interior fitting.
A later walnut bookcase on chest with inlaid stringing lines.
A mahogany clothes press on serpentine bracket feet with original swan-neck handles.
Finely figured veneers. Hence high value. 1750-1780
Mahogany clothes press with bracket feet and original handles. The applied mouldings on the doors add to the quality.
A mahogany clothes press with cupboard beneath, on serpentine bracket feet. Cupboards below are less useful and less popular. 1760-1780
A Sheraton style wardrobe with high quality mahogany veneers in oval panels on the doors and two drawers beneath. Inlaid boxwood stringing lines emphasise the design.
An unusual clothes press or wardrobe in which the doors have simulated drawers with black stringing lines let into them. The top moulding is a good example of an arcaded cavetto with dentil above. 1790-1810
An example of a Gothic design of clothes press door using high quality veneers and beaded mouldings. The drawers have matched quartered veneers  unusual in mahogany. 1820-1840
In oak with the medullary rays showing and supported on each side by reeded pilasters. Although the top moulding isn’t very strong it comes forward at the end, a nice touch.
The broken pediment doesn’t quite succeed but the bold shell and well-thought-out stringing lines make this an attractive piece. The Edwardians occasionally ‘improved’ these pieces by adding inlays and a cornice or pediment. c. 1800 according to the quality and condition of the lacquer but beware modern lacquer Veneered in walnut with wide cross-banding and moulding cut along the grain. Well constructed with ovolo mouldings to the doors which gives the piece a more finished appearance.

French Cupboards

A walnut cross-banded glazed-door antique French cupboard of c.1725, with broken pediment. It has been suggested that such cupboards became popular at the time to store and display the expensive tea sets then in vogue.
The figure of the walnut veneers is elegantly matched and the moulding on the cornice is gross-grained.
Quality of decoration and veneers
Quality of colour and cross-grained mouldings
A walnut bow-fronted French cupboard with cross-banding, c.1720. Possibly designed to stand on a larger bow-fronted French cupboard. Figure and patination of veneer
Solid walnut bow-fronted French cupboard of c.1730, of country origin. The construction and mouldings are very simple.
Price Range: $60 -$90
Value points: Colour and patination
Size  small  Quality of mouldings
An oak French cupboard of c.1740, with panelled doors banded in mahogany. Cupboards of this style, often as a low stand were made from the beginning of the century onwards but the dentillated top cornice and mahogany decoration indicate the date mentioned. Rather a large form of French cupboard generally.
Mid eighteenth century mahogany French cupboard, c.1750, with broken pediment and panelled doors. The moulding to the cornice is finely executed and the dark figured mahogany in the shaped door panels is rich in colour.
A mid eighteenth century oak bow-fronted French cupboard with fluted pilasters. The H hinges are typical of the type used by country makers, although the pilasters add quality to the piece, c.1750.
Oak bow-fronted country French cupboard with mahogany banding on the doors. Probably of late eighteenth century date. The top moulding is dentillated and there is an inlaid medallion in boxwood and ebony at the top of the flat side surfaces, c.1780.
A late eighteenth century oak French cupboard with a panelled door with three drawers below. Beneath the bold top cornice moulding there is a band of mahogany veneer. The three small drawers suggest that the piece may have been designed for kitchen use although the quality of construction and door panel moulding are of fairly refined craftsmanship. c.1790.
Late eighteenth century mahogany French cupboard with fluted sides and decorated with satinwood inlays. The oval central panel to the door is decorated with a beautifully figured piece of mahogany veneer. The top cornice is dentillated with satinwood inlay and the frieze is also decorated with an inlaid satinwood classical motif, c.1790.

ENGLISH CORNER CUPBOARDS
About 1690-1800
Mahogany corner cabinet with swan- neck cresting, chamfered sides and typical brass H-hinges
Thought to have been introduced from Holland, coinciding with the fashion for painted pine-panelled rooms, corner cupboards were used to store and display fine china, silver or other valuables in the drawing-room, Some could be hanging, above dado level, others are of double height. They generally disappeared from main reception rooms around 1750 (when the fashion for wallpaper replaced panelling) but were still made for other rooms and for country parlours until the end of the century, and have been popular reproduction pieces ever since.
STYLE AND APPEARANCE
Considerable variation throughout the century. Can be:
Simple mahogany bow-fronted corner (cupboard.
Hanging, with bow front: Mostly in japanned pine or walnut veneer. A pair of doors, their curve continuing on the side framing. Simple moulding above and below. Doors generally rebate together (to form continuous smooth curve) but sometimes narrow moulding conceals join.
Hanging, with flat front: Usually a single panelled door with chamfered framing at sides (this sometimes decorated with fluting or carved columns). Simple base, but bolder cor-
MATERIALS
Walnut and mahogany veneer on a pine (occasionally oak) base. Pine if painted or japanned. Country versions mostly in solid oak.
CONSTRUCTION
Right 18thC pine corner cupboard; left, reproduction Georgian-style mahogany corner cupboard.
nice; moulding, sometimes with frieze below. Occasionally a broken pediment. Door can have a shaped, and on country versions, fielded, panel, sometimes glazed, with or without glazing bars. Earliest versions evidently had a panel of mirror glass, seldom still in place.
Double-height: Mainly straight-fronted; occasionally bow-fronted. Initially made to match (and sometimes actually fitted into) wall panelling, with a join at dado level. Many therefore made of pine (once painted, now often stripped and waxed) with two panelled doors below, and two glazed or even open shelves above. The most desirable have a rounded barrel back, the half-domed top occasionally carved as a shell. The grandest have architectural mouldings (often with doors forming an arch bordered by broad carved pilasters).
Continuous plinth or bracket feet; the plainest (oak) country versions have plinth or stile feet.
Later veneered versions have bracket or, after 1780, ’swept’ feet, below plain, panelled base door(s). Upper door(s) panelled or glazed, the latter with decorative arrangements of glazing bars. Bolder, deeper moulded cornice than hanging types, sometimes frieze too. (If seen on a single hanging cupboard, this probably indicates there was once a base.)
On all types, interior shelves are nearly always curved and shaped. Both they and the backboards were fashionably painted, mostly blue or green, sometimes red or yellow.
LATER REPRODUCTIONS
This type of corner cabinet was popularly reproduced by the Edwardians, often with a dentil frieze (a feature of only some 18thC examples) on top of a glazed cabinet, and rather bright, yellow inlay or green-stained stringing, fans and conch shells. Also widely reproduced today –often veneered in yew or cheap mahogany – but frequently too narrow overall, with a tall, lower cupboard.
Framed construction with glued mortise-andtenon joints. Mitred joints and veneer on better quality. Many veneered all over. Tops rough, but under-side of hanging cabinets finished. Always locks, but generally no (or very simple wooden) catches. Invariably backed with unfinished planking.
Curved doors on bow fronts coopered (i.e. large number of verticals cut at slight angle and glued (or grooved and glued) together before being planed to a smooth surface.
Cornice and base mouldings similarly constructed.
Watch for marriages on double-height pieces; check for matching colour and grain of timber (both back and front); also for shape of interior shelves and matching lockplates and escutcheons. Blind doors may now be glued.
DECORATION
Principally figuring of timber. Occasionally simple inlay and stringing in late 18thC (and on Edwardian reproductions). Mahogany cross-banding and occasionally inlay (often star shapes) on country-made oak pieces.
japanning popular for early pieces, with chinoiserie decoration on a mainly black ground.
Hinges: Exterior H- or butterfly hinges until about 1760 (later on country versions). Decorative lock escutcheons.
FINISH
Varnish, followed by wax polish. japanning, paint (many now stripped and waxed).
RELATIVE VALUES
Popular, but seldom immensely valuable, items. Many hanging cupboards (especially country versions) priced in three figures. Good walnut veneer, a broken pediment or fine inlay will increase value considerably.
japanned examples –even when early – may seem surprisingly cheap unless in red, blue or yellow (cream) rather than the normal black. These are rare and may fetch five-figures.
Double-height cupboards are approximately double the value, but much more if early and architectural with a barrel back.