Earliest Wardrobes Used For Vestments

August 6, 1988|By Ralph and Terry Kovel

The built-in clothes closet is a 20th century idea, perhaps because there were fewer things to hang up in earlier days. The 18th century housewife would have used the words ''clothes press.''

Wardrobe meant the clothing itself until the 1790s when it came to also mean the cupboard with drawers and hooks used to store clothes. The earliest wardrobes held church vestments as early as the 12th century.

The difference between a wardrobe and an armoire is that a wardrobe has drawers. Styles were similar to other furniture of the same period.

There are examples of carved, plain or veneered items, and some include decorative inlay. Mirrors were not used on the doors until the late Victorian period.The wardrobe was not as common in America as it was in England, so most of those offered for sale in this country have been imported.

One problem with buying old storage pieces is their size. Many of them are more than 8 feet high and will not fit in an average room. And because they are narrow, clothes must be hung facing the door, not the side walls.

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