Dressers of this design, with a base which has a cupboard each side of an open central storage space and with drawers above, are typical of those made in Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire during the second half of the 19th century. They were made with either open shelves above, or alternatively with a glazed cupboard each side of central open shelves. Those with glazed cupboards were often used to display fragile bone-china tea services and ornaments, whilst pottery cups and plates were displayed on the central shelves. Those made in oak in either design were usually intended to form part of the parlour or 'best' room furnishings, holding crockery which was purely for display or used only on special occasions; whereas those made in pine, often painted to simulate oak in the manner of this particular example, were intended to hold crockery for day-to-day use in the kitchen.

The shelves used on dressers of this type are remarkably consistent in design, and have two lower, evenly spaced shelves on which to store dinner plates, and an upper shelf with a larger space to display large meat plates. The edges of the shelves have cup hooks on which to hang cups and jugs, often of blue-and-white, 'gaudy' or lustreware design, and the backs have vertical boards against which the plates can rest. The shelves are typicaly supported by large 'feet' extending across, and often screwed to, the top of the base to give greater stability to the shelves which often contained precious collections of family pottery.
In Wales, carpenters and joiners produced dressers of this type often whilst working for firms of builders and house decorators who may have also combined ecclesiastical woodwork with that of Undertaking as ancillary trades. The firm of William Morgan of Dew Street, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, for example, specialised in all of these trades during the 19th century, and is known to have produced dressers of this type which he sometimes stamped with his firm's name and address.

Dr. B. Cotton May 2002