Sideboard - What is it?

I inherited this. Trying to identify. Intend to sell but not until I know what it is and how to best describe it to a buyer and what it might be worth.

Inside there is a drawer with cubicles for cutlery. Top panel is hinged and opens up to reveal more storage space. Front has two doors that open to reveal four drawers. Top drawer is the slotted cutlery drawer.

Solid wood. Google Lens app seems to think it it walnut. I have no idea.

 

Does appear to be antique. Tell us everything you know about the provenance (Who, what, where, when). Give us dimensions including how deep the top compartment is. Can we see inside and top with it open? A pic of drawer construction and of the back is needed. A close straight-on pic of the wood would also be helpful. Could be walnut but not entirely sure. My gut reaction is mid to late 19th century and European in origin. More pics would help to confirm and verify further.

 

Sure.

It has beeen in the family for at least three generations. My mother took it from her mother when she passed. Now I have it.

36" wide, 33" tall and 17" deep. I did not measure the top compartment. Here come more pictures.

 

Thanks. Was your family in the US when this was procured? Pic of the top compartment is sufficient. Mainly wanted to know if shallow or deep. Quite frankly, I really don't quite know what to think of this piece. I am getting the feeling that it has been fitted with the drawers after the fact. Unless the marks on the front of the drawers are repairs, the construction of the drawers is substandard. The drawer dividers are definitely additions. The flip top is also not a typical feature of such a cabinet, yet I don't see any evidence that the top was once solid and attached.

I am going to tag another member with, perhaps, better expertise in such furniture.
@Ghopper1924

 

I can't give you certain answers. Family arrived in US 1880s from Alsace Lorraine and settled in San Francisco. I really doubt they hauled heavy furniture here from Europe before Panama Canal opened. Surely there were USA furniture makers working.

Can we at least conclude it is a sideboard?

Later this week I can look again and take more photos if you think that is useful.

Thank you for looking.

 

A generation is typically measured as 15-20 years. What year did your grandmother die? And would/could you post photographs of the hardware? The backplates and pulls?

Debora

 

Grandmother born 1896, died 1987.

I can photograph the hardware but not for a few days. The piece is in a house that I am cleaning out. I live elsewhere.

 

One of mine was born in 1896 too. I'd have figured the case for mid-19th century European. San Francisco was a magnet for anyone and everyone, and she could have bought it there on the secondary market. Or been given it by a friend/neighbor/employer etc.

 

My grandmother was born in the USA. Her father was an immigrant and her mother was native born.

Shipping furniture from Europe to the West Coast of the USA in the 1800s seems un-economical, but maybe.

 

Very mysterious. I’d agree on the walnut exterior constructed ca. 1880 or so. Probably northwest European. It appears to have been stripped; at any rate the burr or burl panels are gone.

I’ve never seen casework like this with a “spinet” flip top. Agree on the drawer’s substandard construction. Also, it may be the angle or light, but it appears that there was a top piece that is now missing.

The odd thing is that it appears to have been a buffet/sideboard that was repurposed as a….buffet/sideboard. I’ve not seen anything like it. Almost impossible to set a value to it, but I would err on the low side at perhaps $150-$200 at an auction in my part of the US Midwest.

 

Everything in San Fran was imported and $$$ until the Panama Canal opened. (Still is, come to it.) That would explain why it was redone at least once.

 

Thanks for the estimate. The piece is in Northern California.

Should I pitch it to local antique dealers or try to find an end-user? I don't want to spend a whole lot of time marketing it. Just find a good owner or dealer who will pay market price less a bit for an easy sale and take it away. But first, identification.

 

then you'll accept less than you want for it....and sell it locally.

 

I do not know what I want yet because I do not know what I have. But I have learned a lot today.

Next visit I will take close-up photos of the hardware.

 

San Francisco was founded in 1776. One would assume furniture making started shortly thereafter (although this piece is obviously not an example from that early period.) The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, linking the East and West coasts and, according to wikipedia.org, "made transporting passengers and goods coast-to-coast considerably quicker, safer and less expensive." (The Panama Canal didn't open until 1914 when the population of San Francisco was already over 400,000.) In the late Victorian era, the transport of goods by railroad to the West Coast was so efficient that the California robber barons -- Crocker, Huntington, Stanford, Hopkins are examples -- brought back freight cars filled with furnishings and art from their Grand Tours of Europe. So much, in fact, that the first three opened museums to display their imported bounty.

Debora

 

Don't traditional sideboards usually have a top section with a mirror?

 

not always...and the mirror is the 1st thing to go........
I have one...... tossed.....in my garage !!!

 

I guess I would call it a server due to its relatively small size. I think Ghoppers valuation is right on. Since in Northern CA, I might start it a bit higher and see if you get any interest. You can always come down. No huge value any way you look at it, so selling locally via fb marketplace or similar is probably the way to go.

 

Since this is reporposed, maybe the top is unusual because this is only the bottom half of a piece and the top disappeared. Since they had to build a new top anyway, they built one with access.

 

Hello again. Someone here asked to see close-ups of the sideboard's hardware. Here is what I have.

-Matt.