Sideboards

The American Empire sideboards are among the best pieces of furniture that the period produced, both in point of structure and design. The carcase work is rectilinear for the most part and the best of material was used. There were usually three divisions in the larger sideboards (Key XVII, 5), two doors in the middle panel and one door in each of the end panels. Sideboards of a smaller type had two doors. All the sideboards rested upon scroll, bears' or lions' claw, turned, melon or ball feet.

From the plinth rose pillars or pilasters supporting the projecting top (Key XVII, 5). These pillars or pilasters were sometimes round and plain and garnished with brass mounts at the bases and capitals, sometimes they were spiral turned and at still others were lavishly carved with pineapple; acanthus or floral motifs. The upper projecting portion contained drawers and the lower part had cupboards. The panels of these cupboards were sometimes square, sometimes round, arched or pointed in Gothic style. The tops were either plain and straight or else supported additional drawers at each end, which took the place of the knife-urn supports to be found on the ends of the Sheraton sideboards of the later type. There were also back-pieces or backboards rising above the top of the sideboard, and in not a few instances the middle portion of this backboard was occupied by a mirror (Key XVII, 5) and carved supports to bear it up on each side. Although most of the sideboards had straight fronts, there are cases in which the middle portion was swelled or sprung, at least in the under part.

Wardrobes

High chests of drawers had gone out of fashion and their place was taken by large wardrobes having doors extending from the top to the bottom. These rested upon turned or carved feet of round, melon, ball or claw-foot design. The carcase work rose from a substantial plinth, and pilasters or pillars often adorned the front, with elaborately carved capitals just beneath the cornice.

Mirrors

Mirror frames were made in both mahogany and gilt. The upright mirrors not infrequently had two sections, the upper one of which was devoted to some kind of painted or embroidered embellishment covered with glass, the lower portion being reserved for the looking-glass. The corners of these mirrors were often ornamented with round, turned rosettes on projecting square blocks. Many of the mahogany mirror frames were simply of broad, bevelled and moulded wood. The more ornate type had pilasters or columns of somewhat bulky proportions at the sides and were frequently spiral turned in the favourite Empire manner. The gilded mirrors were more elaborate in pattern, as a rule, and had square paterae with enrichment either in carving or compo.

Clocks

The clocks distinctively of the Empire period were the mahogany case mantel or shelf clocks, with the lower part of the door embellished with a painting, the upper part being of clear glass for the front of the dial. Such clocks were not infrequently surmounted by one or three brass balls spiked. From this period also date the Willard banjo clocks and the lyre-shaped clocks. In fact it may be said that all the hanging clocks and all the shelf clocks of American manufacture belong to the Empire period.