This is a Hepplewhite style Chinese sideboard with spectacular bone inlay. I refer to this as Chinese, but more accurately, it should be called Pacific Rim because there really isn’t enough scholarship to pinpoint its origin. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see how these English styles were reproduced abroad with great quality in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The wood is probably paduk, which is very heavy. The craftsmanship is outstanding as even the ends of the case are paneled and inlaid. This sideboard retains its original wooden pulls and first surface. It was part of the original furnishings of an old Providence, Rhode Island hotel, when I acquired it many years ago. (The hotel no longer exists.)
A related sideboard appeared at Skinner’s in July, 2001 in Boston. Further, a similar example appears in F. Lewis Hinckley, A Directory of Antique Furniture, p.127. He attributes the wood as red nara and from the Philippine Islands, c. 1820.
Revised August 4, 2026