Sideboard
Late Federal style, 1810-1825
Baltimore
After the Revolution, most American homes of the well-to-do had separate rooms for dining. At that time, a number of innovative pieces of furniture were created especially for use in the dining room, chief among them the cabinet sideboard. In the early Federal period, these sideboards typically had shallow cabinets and tall legs. By the second decade of the 19th century, however, most sideboards had deep cabinets and very short legs to allow for additional storage space for ceramics, glass, and silver. This Baltimore sideboard was originally made for Gov. John Eager Howard and came to Hampton around 1851 when his granddaughter Margaretta Sophia Howard married Charles Ridgely, her first cousin.
Mahogany; poplar; white pine. H 123.2, L 192.4, W 54.9 cm
Hampton National Historic Site , HAMP 2964