It is convenient in this place to mention the 'sideboard' of the old oak period. The eighteenth, nineteenth, and present century embodiments must not obtrude themselves on our minds. The sideboard of the end of the sixteenth century and a little later is a two- or three-tiered table more resembling what we sometimes describe as a 'dinner-wagon.' Its tiers are supported by more or less bulbous pillars similar to those on beds, tables, and court cupboards. In fact, if the two spaces between the tiers were filled in with a back and cupboard doors, there would not be much difference between a sideboard and a court cupboard. The supports of these pieces of furniture are most exaggerated and bulbous, according as they approximate in date to the beds and tables and cabinets which have the bulbous shapes, i.e. those which date from about 1580 to 1590. The more moderate supports of the cabinet in Plate XXXIX. would point to a rather later date. It is customary, and no doubt correct in the main, to consider furniture carved in bold relief with marked gadroon shapes as earlier than that which, as in Plate xl., shows lightly incised work by comparison. But these distinctions of dating must not be relied upon too much. Two instances are sufficient to show the precarious nature of the attempt.

Plate XL. Yorkshire Cabinet, Oak About 1630

xl. Yorkshire Cabinet, oak. About 1630. Mrs. C. Newton-Robinson.

Dimensions: Height 59, Breadth 73½, Depth from front to back 20½ inches.

Plate XXXIX. Oak Cabinet, Inlaid Late 16th Century

XXXIX. Cabinet, oak, inlaid. Late sixteenth century. Messrs. Gill and Reigate.

The tables on Plates xlix.i and lii.2 are, especially the latter, carved in a bold manner which might tempt us to place them in the sixteenth century. They date, in fact, from 1616 and 1622 respectively.