“It is not usual to make sideboards hollow in front, but if a sideboard be required 9 or 10 feet long, as in some noblemen’s houses, and if the breadth of it be in proportion to its length, it will not be easy for a butler to reach across it.” A hollow front, Sheraton thinks, would “obviate the difficulty and take off the appearance of great length. Besides, if the sideboard be near the entering door, the hollow front will sometimes secure the butler from the jostles of the other servants.” “The pedestal is used to signify that part in cabinet furniture made nearly to the proportion and figure of a pedestal in architecture. These are generally placed at the end of sideboards, and are designed for holding plates for dinner; for which purpose there are two wooden racks, generally made of oak, in which the plates are placed. The plinth part of these pedestals is generally formed with a drawer, containing an iron stand and heater, which diffuses a warm air to the plates and keeps them in proper temperature at the time of dining. These pedestals are lined with tin completely over on the inside to prevent the heat from injuring the wood. And it may be necessary further to observe, that when there are two pedestals to a sideboard, one of them is generally fitted up in the inside, either with plain drawers or as a cupboard. On such pedestals is generally placed a vase.” This vase is usually a knife or spoon case. On Plate LXI. a sideboard with pedestals is shown. The pedestal parts are made separately and screwed to the sideboard, and the top is one large piece screwed to the pedestal. Under the long drawer of the front is a cupboard enclosed by a tambour shutter. The ornament at the back is of brass “intended as a stay for silver plate, and has branches for three candles.” If preferred the centre “may have a glass lustre hung within it as an ornament.” [Illustration: PLATE LXII] Sheraton gives two designs for knife-cases, one concave, the other convex. In one of them the corner pilasters have “small flutes of white holly or other coloured wood let in, and the middle pilasters have very narrow cross bands all round, with the panels japanned in small flowers. The top is sometimes japanned, and sometimes has only an inlaid pattern. The half-columns of the right-hand case are sometimes fluted out, and sometimes the flutes are let in. The feet may be turned and twisted which will have a good effect.”