Period corner cupboards generally available nowadays come in two variations of two principal types: the hanging corner cupboard and the tall, free-standing variety, which is often in two halves. Each type can either be a cupboard, with a solid door, or a cabinet, which has a glazed door, this normally being confined to the top half in a free-standing cupboard. The solid hanging corner cupboard, as apart from the glazed corner cabinet, has been languishing in popularity recently but the free-standing type seems to remain desirable. The period, wood and style dictate values, for the corner cupboard and cabinet were made in both town and country for a long time. In general, the glazed door was adopted by those who had costly china to display, whereas the solid door was for those who hadn't. The lower door on free-standing corner cupboards was nearly always solid; usually it is in later 19th century copies that the lower door was glazed too. Perhaps because of the cachet, or ability to display items proclaiming taste and wealth, or just for decoration, the glazed cabinet has remained the preferred domestic form for a long time. The only real exception to this is the architectural form of corner cupboard with side pilasters, broken pediments and, to add real attraction, the 'umbrella top' of half-dome form, preferably ornamented with shell carving.
The stylistic fashions of each period were present in corner cupboards as much as in any other furniture. Oak and walnut were followed by mahogany, but painted versions, including japanned ones with chinoiserie designs, made their 18th century appearance too. There was something about the corner position, perhaps dark, that seems to have encouraged occasional flamboyance as a means of brightening the space. Many Georgian corner cupboards may have been as severe and as formal as the mahogany pieces elsewhere in the room, but every now and then a colourful one makes its appearance. The great design paragons of the 18th century - Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton - are not noted for promoting the corner cupboard in their books, although, as we shall see, Chippendale was not averse to making them. A reference in Ince and Mayhew's Universal System of Household Furniture (1759-62) on plate XLVII shows scroll-supported corner shelves with cupboards below in the French encoigneur manner. On the whole the French 18th century corner cupboard was of table height, with a marble top, or else a free-standing tall type. In Victorian times the corner site in a room was coveted by other pieces such as the corner whatnot - a derivative of the French encoigneur as used by Ince and Mayhew -sometimes with a cupboard below, and Victorians liked corner cabinets in prevailing tastes such as the Aesthetic, which would be bespindled, mirrored, and often black.
Starting at the beginning, figure 1 shows a 17th century small oak hanging corner cupboard embellished with the kind of carving one sees on furniture of the period - a diamond lozenge central to the door, plus arcade and guilloche decoration elsewhere. Hanging oak corner cupboards developed from this kind of early example, with glazed cabinet doors coming along in the early 18th century, when china and porcelain became used in prosperous households that wished to display them. In figure 2 we see the mid-to-late 18th century view of the oak hanging corner cupboard, on which the decoration has progressed to architectural sources in the broken pediment, blind fretted frieze under the top moulding and a fielded panel to the solid door, the bevelled sides being fluted and reeded columns. In many ways this oak version derives its style from town furniture in mahogany, as seen in figure 3, which is a fine quality George III version of the third quarter of the 18th century in which the serpentine open pediment has been centred by a later cartouche. The door has arched panelling of a rather stiffer character than figure 2, but the bottom moulding is similar.