In England this piece of furniture was known as the court-cupboard and was used for the display and keeping of plate and other table-furniture. It was always in evidence at great entertainments; and, like the dressoir, the number of its shelves was regulated by etiquette. In France two shelves were allowed to ordinary persons; three to the nobility; and four or five to royalty. In England two shelves were permitted in the baronet's home; three in an earl's; four were given to a princess; and five to a Queen.

"The dressers of countesses should have three shelves, on which should be ranged dishes, pots, flagons, and large drinking-cups, whilst on the broadest part of the dresser there should be two large wax candles, to be lit when any one is in the room," is an old rule.

When Henry VIII. entertained some French Ambassadors at Greenwich, he had a "cupborde seven stages high and thirteen feet long, set with standing cuppes, bolles, flag-gons and great pottles all of fine golde, some garnished with one stone and some with other stones and pearles." On great occasions the court-cupboard sometimes consisted of as many as twelve shelves. The livery-cupboard, on the other hand, seems to have been exclusively used for service and as a receptacle for food. It received its name from the French livrer (to deliver); and it always stood in the mediaeval banquet-hall. From it viands were served - delivered. By its side stood the head-butler in ceremonious attitude. Upon the court-cupboard were arranged the plate, the cups, the ewer and basin which took the place of the modern fingerbowls and the big almsdish. In his Creed of an Epicure (1576), James Sandford says: "My chambers (I sayde my parlours and other romes) hangyd with cloth of gold, my cupboardes heades set out and adorned after the richest, costliest and most glorious manner, with one cuppe cock height upon another, beside the greate basin and ewer of silver and gold filled at tymes with sweete and pleasant waters."

Plate LIV - Seventeenth Century Carved Oak Cupboard - Metropolitan Museum

The livery-cupboard was sometimes kept in the bedrooms with light provisions for an impromptu meal. It was furnished with doors and locks, and the panels were often perforated for the sake of ventilation. In some rural districts in England these old cupboards are known popularly as "bread-and-cheese cupboards."