By the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the sideboard had become a common form in upper-middle-class American households. This example, with splashboard above and, in the lower section, tall cupboards above short, turned legs is typical of the later examples produced in the south.
 
Technical notes: Black cherry, mahogany veneer (arch surrounds of cupboard doors), undetermined crotch-grain veneer (panels of cupboard doors), black cherry (feet, drawer fronts, framing posts); yellow-poplar (drawer components, interior framing). The brasses replace original glass pulls, removed in 1961.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.