The Lowly Chiffonier

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Today’s Blog Post


The Lowly Chiffonier

So here it is – finally… a word that has puzzled me for almost as long as I can remember. I didn’t know how to spell it – let alone know what it was and where it came from. Sheesh!

Chiffonier… or Cheffonier… both are correct if you use it in scrabble.

Wikipedia states…
“A chiffonier (or cheffonier) is a piece of furniture differentiated from the sideboard by its smaller size and by the enclosure of the whole of the front by doors. Its name (which comes from the French for a "rag-gatherer") suggests that it was originally intended as a receptacle for odds and ends which had no place elsewhere, but it now usually serves the purpose of a sideboard.

It was one of the many curious developments of the mixed taste, at once cumbrous and bizarre, which prevailed in furniture during the Empire period in England. The earliest cheffoniers date from that time; they are usually of rosewood - the favorite timber of that moment; their furniture (the technical name for knobs, handles, and escutcheons) was most commonly of brass, and there was very often a raised shelf with a pierced brass gallery at the back. The doors were well panelled and often edged with brass-beading, while the feet were pads or claws, or, in the choicer examples, sphinxes in gilded bronze.”

The free dictionary states…
chiffonier, chiffonnier [ˌʃɪfəˈnɪə]
n
1. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Furniture) a tall, elegant chest of drawers, originally intended for holding needlework
2. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Furniture) a wide low open-fronted cabinet, sometimes fitted with two grille doors and shelves

And it could also be known as a chest of drawers, dresser, bureau, chest - furniture with drawers for keeping clothes

Another definition or description was…
–noun
1.
a high chest of drawers or bureau, often having a mirror on top.
2.
a low bookcase of the English Regency, with grille doors or doorless.
3.
a shallow, tall, open piece of furniture, of the 18th century, having shelves for the display of china.

No wonder I couldn’t figure it all out. Some people used the word to describe the piece of furniture in the dinning room that held plates and was a smaller edition of a sideboard – which were very large – others used it to describe a bedroom piece.

Now coming from Saskatchewan and the southern part – with solid connections to Illinois and Iowa… the word didn’t make must sense? The American roots pretty much cut to chase on most words and descriptions of items used.

But there it was the chiffonier, that special dresser for clothes that my mom kept in her bedroom… on 1422 Elliott Street in Regina, Saskatchewan. That is when I first remember hearing the word… about 60 years ago.

1422 Elliott Street was not the higher end of the city… in fact it was so far from the upper crust folk of Regina that you would not be able to imagine. 1422 Elliott had an outdoor toilet with a honey pail in it. The honey pail was a bucket that was removed once a week by the “honey wagon” man as he drove down the back lane to empty the human waste from each toilet.

Years before the city had forced the folk in that small community to not dig anymore toilet holes, as was the common practice of the day. Instead to encourage a higher form of cleanliness they provided the “honey wagon”.

Now two things come to mind… first, the real name was not “honey wagon” and the second, if I complain about any job that I have ever had or done – the “honey wagon” man’s work was a stand out to encourage higher education!

Now think for a minute… how far the 1422 Elliott St. experience was from people that often had use of a Chiffonier in their dinning rooms or as a place to keep your fine clothing in your bedroom.

But I did catch the fact that part of the definition that stated… “which comes from the French for a "rag-gatherer") suggests that it was originally intended as a receptacle for odds and ends which had no place elsewhere, but it now usually serves the purpose of a sideboard.”

A less classy description that could have been used by the American part of my family was “Junk Cabinet” – but Chiffonier has more class.

Hey – I wasn’t born into class but rather down to earth… ordinary folk that loved life.

A sloppy watermelon was a great dessert.

As I reflected on all this in that last few days… I realize how much our family has changed – yet remains the same.

I have been reading another great book by Kate Morton… “The House at Riverton” – and that is where the word popped up. Kate described a world where my family once came from.

In my family there was a Lord Samuel Lincoln. His sons climbed aboard the second series of boats after the Mayflower and arrived at Plymouth Rock, south of the present Boston area and not far from Hingham, Mass. In fact the Hingham village site was named after the Lincoln’s original town near their Lord Samuel Lincoln’s estate… away back when.

I am so far away from that kind of life… there are no words to describe it.

Chiffonier… chiffonier… a piece of furniture to hold odds and ends… or junk.

What a leap! But now I can spell chiffonier!

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/  

Resource
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiffonier
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chiffonier
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chiffonier