Mini-Cultural Biography of The Campbell Sideboard

Despite being relegated to the side of the room by the virtue of its name alone, the Campbell sideboard is really one of the focal points of the dining room. It’s impressive size and carvings are opulent and detailed beyond any of the other furniture in the room (although it all shares similar characteristics of renaissance revival furniture with curves and carvings). The 1885 photos of the room show it set up for two very different events—a formal dinner and for what seems to be a regular afternoon, with no settings on the table. In both photos, the sideboard is a huge presence, regardless of if it is nearly smothered by the objects cluttering it’s marble top or if it is delicately graced by only a handful of practical implements.

The sideboard, which was wildly popular in Europe in the mid-1800’s following the Great Exhibition of 1851, experienced an explosion of popularity as a result of the display of the Parisian Henri Fourdinois’s lavishly carved wood sideboard. A veritable sideboard mania swept Britain, and came across the ocean and influenced Mrs. Campbell to purchase a sideboard, most likely in Philadelphia, before her move to St. Louis. She likely purchased the furniture in the late summer of 1855 with the rest of the dining room furniture, although it varies slightly in wood and detailing than the furniture in the rest of the room. Like most other sideboards of this time, it was likely made by a French or German immigrant. It bears striking resemblance to a sideboard made by Alexander Roux on display at the Met in New York, which is a derivation of a sideboard that he had on display at the Crystal Palace during the 1851 Exposition. The detail carvings of land and water game on the cabinet doors are nearly identical.

It is an impressive furniture object, filling the space in the east end of the current dining room in the Campbell House Museum against the windows, covering the shutters overlooking the side yard. It is made from a variety of woods, including oak, maple, poplar, and tulip, and other woods, with a marble top and a mirror in the back. As was fashionable in the Victorian era, the carvings depict game and fruit, surrounded by detailing of curves and swirls.

Standing nearly 10 feet high at the peak of the deer’s antlers, the sideboard is two pieces—a lower cabinet consisting of a marble counter sitting atop four cabinet shelves and four drawers, of which the two on either side are curved and open to the side. Each door is on a pin hinge, and each cabinet contains two shelves. The doors are several pieces of wood, although it is notable that the curved portion of the outside doors is a single piece of wood. A carved detail of land game is affixed on the center left cabinet door, and of water game on the center right door. There are no handles for these cabinets, although each is equipped for the installation of a lock. The drawers have a carving detail at each of the locks, and a rounded shape in wood around each of the areas. The furthest left door has a permanent key in the lock, and the other drawers are equipped for the locks, although they don’t seem to have functional ones installed. This whole unit sits directly on the floor, without any legs or space underneath.

Above the drawers and cabinets is the marble top, which is a light gray color and shaped to match the cabinets below. It has a beveled edge, sloping downward. The thickness of the marble is about one inch. Above the marble extends the mirror backboard, which appears to be attached to the back of the cabinet section by a long board. The large mirror sits directly in the middle of the unit, with curving, carved wood up either side, accented by small shelves about one-third of the way up the unit. These shelves are mostly circular, and sit on a carved curl of leaves and berries. The details in the carving include fruit, nuts, figs, grapes and leaves. At the very top and center is the bust of a deer, including antlers. There are also curls in the corner of the mirror.

The sideboard is situated immediately to the left as one enters the dining room from the front of the house. Today, it’s flanked by two of the forty-eight chairs on the first floor. In the historical pictures, it is either flanked by chairs (in the casual picture) or by two small serving tables (in the formal photo), which back up to the windows on either side. The sideboard blocks the shutters of the southern windows, preventing them from being opened. It is about a foot too wide on either side to allow access. It sits directly across from the dining room table and from the large mirror above the fireplace. It’s also in the path of access from the butler’s pantry to the dining room table. The deer bust is directly aligned with the painting on the ceiling—the details match up on the portion of the room where the sideboard resides, but are slightly out of line closer to the dining room table (although the sideboard center lines up with the gasolier center, which looks to be approximately the center of the room).

There are not really any other places in the room for the sideboard to be located—limited by its size and the architecture of the space, there was no option but to block these windows and set it slightly off in the alcove. On both the North and the South walls, doors cover most of the space. On the West wall, a fireplace fills most of the area. If the sideboard were placed next to the fireplace, it may provide more open space in the alcove portion of the room, but unfortunately it would not allow for easy access to the serving implements for the servants. This location also gives the sideboard a greater power than anywhere else in the room—having it’s own alcove makes it very important in relation to the rest of the furniture.

The access to the sideboard was most likely crucial during dining extravaganzas in the dining room. In the picture of the formal dining setting, there are 15 pouring vessels located on the sideboard, which I have sketched. These vessels likely contained wine, coffee, water, liquors, sauces, gravies and other additions to the meal. In the casual photo of the room, there are not nearly as many pouring vessels, but at least three are still visible on the sideboard. Unlike our modern dining experience, the servants would have had to come in and pour all of these things for the dinner guests, so they would have needed easy access to them throughout the meal.

Although this is how the use of the sideboard is illustrated in the Campbell’s history, other sideboards were used for serving game, meats, or wines. The cabinets below were likely used for storage of china or serving accessories, and would not have been accessed during the meal, and probably not opened in the presence of the family. The precedent for sideboards was less function than display of the intricate carvings and details, although this particular sideboard is a toned down, functional version which was most likely more suiting to the practical frontier of St. Louis.

The detailed carving of game and fruit was popular for sideboards and dining furniture of the Victorian era, serving as a connection and a reminder of the natural elements of food. The sideboard is a very masculine piece of furniture, representing the hunt and the connections to nature. This is fittingly appropriate for Robert Campbell with his associations to the Wild West through his work and travels. The Campbell’s probably didn’t think about the direct references to hunting and death in their everyday use of this object, since it was such a popular motif for dining rooms during this era. They likely just considered it to be another decorative piece in their set. I reacted negatively to the images of dead animals; especially if they are directly next to my dinner table, but this exhibit of sensual violence and hunt was so common and even popular, it probably didn’t faze them.

Sideboards were literal altars of abundance, representing the fruit and fowl of God to the Victorians, who reveled in the splendor of their resources. Like altars of churches, the symmetry, details and opulence of sideboards is a center of worship in the elaborate, ceremonial meals that took place in the Campbell house, some of which lasted for over three hours.

The sideboard embodies many traditions and cultural influences of the Victorian era, from the importance of dining to the masculine basis for the hunt. It serves an important function as a serving piece of furniture, but is also less functional than it is representative of the power and influence in the Campbell House. The sideboard still maintains its importance in the Campbell House museum as a relic of the renaissance revival and the Victorian age.