Antique and Vintage Cabinets

Cabinets are versatile pieces of furniture used to add home storage space, whether they’re used for kitchenware, spices, fine china, linens, books, records, or office supplies. However, during the Renaissance period in Europe, the term cabinet was used to describe not just an item of furniture, but an entire room: Cabinets were small private studies where members of the upper classes could escape their public obligations and surround themselves with objects of personal interest, like books and art. Around the same time, “cabinets of curiosities” emerged—also known as wunderkammer or “wonder rooms” in German—which were pieces of furniture used to display collections of natural specimens, religious relics, antiquities, and other objects like miniature museums. Such display cases or vitrines were typically made from wood framed with large glass sides for easy viewing. Eventually, cabinets described a wide variety of furniture used for enclosed storage; though many other terms are used interchangeably, like cupboards, hutches, buffets, credenzas, and sideboards, these typically refer to a specific type or style of cabinet. Cupboards, which were typically used to store and display tableware, range from a standard set of open wooden shelves over two large cabinet doors to triangular-shaped pieces made to fit in a corner with ornate decorative paneling or latticework over their upper shelves. Pie safes were kitchen cabinets whose upper shelves were flanked by doors mounted with perforated tin panels, often punched in decorative patterns, used to keep flies and other pests from reaching fresh food. Likely introduced to American households by German immigrants, pie safes were widely popular until the end of the 19th century, when iceboxes began replacing them. French-style china cabinets, sometimes called Welsh dressers in Great Britain, tended to be tall pieces with wooden doors or drawers on their lower portion, a flat work surface at mid-height, and an upper section of open shelving often protected with glass-paneled doors framed by carved wood. So-called “hutch tables” from the 18th and early 19th centuries were constructed with a full-size table top that could be rotated vertically to reveal a storage space or chair seat. Later antique hutches were typically made in two parts, with a freestanding shelving unit that sat on top of a lower cabinet and counter space, often a marble or enameled-metal surface used for food preparation. Vintage sideboards and buffets are generally long, low pieces of furniture no taller than waist-high, with closed cupboards or drawers beneath a flat top, providing a good place to present food for serving. Generally, sideboards have very small legs or none at all, while buffets or servers have taller legs. A credenza is similar in form, but often refers to a low cabinet on narrow legs with interior shelving and sliding wooden doors produced in the mid-20th century. In the late 19th century, the Art Nouveau period ushered in more inventive and organic cabinet shapes with whimsical carved decorations featuring natural motifs. The Art Deco era emphasized angular, polished, geometrically decorated pieces, which were often shorter than older cabinets. Mid-Century Modern cabinets and credenzas had even cleaner lines, and frequently lacked handles or carved decoration altogether. Many vintage cabinets made in the 1950s and ‘60s were specifically designed to accommodate certain household needs, such as record cabinets with built-in turntables and speakers or liquor cabinets holding bottles and barware.