Kitchen Cabinets · Victorian (Queen Anne, Eastlake)
Herter Brothers Oak Sideboard with Foliate Panels (1876–80)
A tall carved oak sideboard by Herter Brothers with foliate panels, small Romanesque arches and turned, chamfered details, made in New York in the late 1870s.
Design characteristics
A dining room sideboard of this scale was effectively a built-in: it stood over seven feet tall and anchored the room. Herter Brothers carved its oak doors with stylized leaves, set small arches into the upper gallery, and used turned and chamfered posts to give it a vertical rhythm. The base offers deep cupboards and drawers; the upper tiers display plates and silver. Today the same layout makes an excellent built-in buffet or butler's pantry wall: closed storage below a counter, shallow open display above, and carved panels used only on the doors where they will be seen at eye level.
Classification
- Category
- Kitchen Cabinets
- Motifs
- Incised geometric, Carved panel
- Date
- 1876–80
- Maker or designer
- Herter Brothers American, 1864–1906
- Recorded medium
- Oak with white pine
- Dimensions
- 230 × 213.4 × 73.7 cm (91 1/2 × 84 × 29 in.)
- Evidence
- Documented historical object
- Source
- Art Institute of Chicago
Architectural context
Carved mantels, layered trim and dark, decorative hardwoods. Britain and the United States · c. 1837–1901.
