Sideboard, designed by Philip Webb and made by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., British, about 1862, ebonised wood with painted decoration, panels of stamped leather and brass mounts

Sideboard, ebonised wood, with painted and gilt decoration and panels of stamped leather paper. Hinges and handles of brass and copper with incised decoration. Floral decoration.

Given by Ben Weinreb

Philip Webb noted in his account book, 1862-3, designs for three sideboards and for painted and lacquered panels, some intended for a sideboard. This sideboard may be one of those early commissions. The leather panels with birds and flowers set in roundels and stiff, floral trails are very similar to those on the sideboard illustrated in colour as the frontispiece to Morris & Company's catalogue, Furniture & Decorative Work, c. 1912, and described as being made in 'in the earliest days of the firm at Red Lion Square (c.1862)'.

The base of the sideboard appears to have been altered. The three drawers along the bottom of the sideboard may be later additions. The two plain drawer fronts were inserted to replace missing drawers by furniture conservators in the Museum after the sideboard was acquired..

In 1971 this sideboard was on display in the Green Dining Room, originally decorated by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1866.

This sideboard is an early example of furniture produced by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company. It was designed by Philip Webb, whose 1862-63 account book records designs for three sideboards and work on painted and lacquered leather panels. Some of these panels were intended for a sideboard and it is possible they form part of this one.

The upper part of the sideboard is almost identical to that illustrated in colour as the frontispiece to Morris & Company’s catalogue of Specimens of Furniture Upholstery & Interior Decoration, but the lower part has been slightly modified. The base of this particular example was originally open but is now filled with drawers.

CIRC.540:1 to 5-1963