Sideboard

Date1840-1850

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Asheville

MediumBlack walnut, tulip poplar, yellow pine, birch, mahogany veneer.

DimensionsOH: 50"; OW: 49"; OD: 23"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2001-807

DescriptionAppearance: A small sideboard with paneled sides and mahogany veneers and cross banding supported by carved lion's-paw feet below engaged spiral-turned columns at the front and tapered brackets at the rear below a tri-part facade of three doors below a projecting section of two drawers or bins flanking a bottle drawer, all surmounted by a splashboard in the shape of a pitched architectural pediment with a central, semicircular cutout.

Construction: The splashboard is butt-joined and screwed to the back edge of the plain, single-board rectangular top which in turn is attached with screws to the sides and front top rail. Sides have a flat, recessed panel that is chamfered on the back and set in grooves in the stiles and rails. Upper and lower side rails are mortised into stiles with interior glue blocks running the full height of the rails to reinforce the joint between the rails and stiles. The upper front rail is double tenoned into the column/front corner posts. The drawer blade is tenoned into both the column/front corner posts and the stiles. The lower front rail is double tenoned into the stiles. The case back is made up of four horizontal boards, one tongue-and-groove and the others half-lapped.

Four-section columns are mounted on the face of the front stiles. Each column consists of a square upper section (front corner post), a turned concave collar, a spiral column and a second turned concave collar that rests on a plinth that is integral to the front foot, glued and probably pegged (or possibly nailed or screwed) to the stile. The square upper section is similarly joined. In both cases veneer obscures the evidence and only x-ray can determine if pegs, nails or screws were used. The spiral turned section has four pegs, glue and possibly nails connecting it to the stile. The spiral section is pegged on each end with the peg running through the collar and mortised into the square column above and plinth below. Front stiles terminate at the base of the case at which point they rest on the lions paw front feet. Rear stiles are integral with the rear feet, being tapered on the front and inside edges below the case to form the feet. All front facing surfaces are veneered as well as side and front edges of the top.

The bottom consists of three separate boards, each functioning as a stand-alone bottom for one of the compartments. They are tongue-and-groove joined to the bottom front rail with supporting lath nailed to the under the front edge of that rail. The bottom boards are also nailed to the bottom edge of the back board, and of the cabinet dividers. A chamfered block, nailed to the side rail rests on top of each outside bottom board. As it does not support the bottom, it appears to function to fill any shrinkage gap between the bottom and the side.

The vertical drawer dividers are tenoned into the top front rail and double through-tenoned into the drawer blade. The outer drawer guides are inset and nailed into the front and rear stiles, and in turn the outer drawer runners are nailed to the bottoms of the guides. Center drawer guides are dadoed into vertical drawer dividers and nailed to back boards, with drawer runners nailed to the bottom.

The cabinet vertical dividers are double tenoned into the bottom front rail and double through-tenoned into the drawer blade. Cabinet walls are tongue-and-groove joined to vertical cabinet dividers and nailed to backboards. The center cabinet shelf is nailed to support rails and the resulting assembly nailed to the cabinet walls.

Drawers are standard dovetail construction with chamfered bottoms fit into dados in the front and sides and nailed to the backs with nails recessed into chiseled-out pockets in the 9/16" drawer bottoms. The center divider of the bottle drawer is mortised into the drawer sides.
Drawer fronts have cock beading glued and nailed into rabbets. Cabinet doors are of breadboard construction with through tenons.
ProvenanceConsigned by an Asheville dealer who obtained the sideboard from a local family.