"No sideboards then with gilded plate were dressed."
The fashion in those days of having symmetrical doors in a room, that is, false doors to correspond with the door used for exit, which one still finds in many old houses in the neighbourhood of Portland Place, and particularly in the Palaces of St. James' and of Kensington, enabled our ancestors to have good cupboards for the storage of glass, crockery, and reserve wine. After the middle of the eighteenth century, however, these extra doors and the cupboard enclosed by them, gradually disappeared; and soon after the mahogany side table came into fashion, it became the custom to supplement this article of furniture by an independent pedestal cupboard on either side (instead of the cupboards alluded to), one for hot plates and the other for wine. Then, as the thin legs gave the table rather a lanky appearance, the garde de vin, or cellaret, was added in the form of an oval tub of mahogany, with bands of brass, sometimes raised on low feet with castors for convenience, which was used as a wine cooler. A pair of urn-shaped mahogany vases stood on the pedestals, and these contained—the one hot water for the servants' use in washing the knives, forks, and spoons, which being then much more valuable were limited in quantity, and the other held iced water for the guests' use. To understand this arrangement the reader is referred to the illustration on page [193].
A brass rail at the back of the side table, with ornamented pillars and branches for candles, was used, partly to enrich the furniture, and partly to form a support to the handsome pair of knife and spoon cases, which completed the garniture of a gentleman's sideboard of this period. It would therefore seem that the modern sideboard is the combination of these separate articles into one piece of furniture—at different times and in different fashions—first the pedestals joined to the table produced our "pedestal sideboard," then the mirror was joined to the back, the cellaret made part of the interior fittings, and the banishment of knife cases and urns to the realms of the curiosity hunter, or for conversion into spirit cases and stationery holders. The sarcophagus, often richly carved, of course succeeded the simple cellaret of Sheraton's period.
Before we dismiss the furniture of the "dining room" of this period, it may interest some of our readers to know that until the first edition of "Johnson's Dictionary" was published in 1755, the term was not to be found in the vocabularies of our language designating its present use. In Barrat's "Alvearic," published in 1580, "parloir," or "parler," was described as "a place to sup in." Later, "Minsheu's Guide unto Tongues," in 1617, gave it as "an inner room to dine or to suppe in," but Johnson's definition is "a room in houses on the first floor, elegantly furnished for reception or entertainment."
A SIDEBOARD IN MAHOGANY WITH INLAY OF SATINWOOD.
IN THE STYLE OF ROBERT ADAM.
To the latter part of the eighteenth century—the English furniture of which time has been discussed in this Chapter—belong the quaint little "urn stands" which were made to hold the urn with boiling water, while the tea pot was placed on a little slide which is drawn out from underneath the top. In those days tea was an expensive luxury, and urn stands (illustrated below) were inlaid in the fashion of the time. These, together with the old mahogany or marqueterie tea caddies, which were sometimes the object of considerable skill and care, are dainty relics of the past. One of these, designed by Chippendale, as illustrated on page [179], and another by Hepplewhite will be found on page [194]. They were fitted with two and sometimes three bottles or tea poys of silver or Battersea enamel, to hold the black and green teas, and when really good examples of these daintily-fitted tea caddies are offered for sale they bring large sums.
URN STAND. TOILET GLASS. URN STAND.