A Welsh dresser or a china hutch (American English

American English

American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....

) and sometimes known as a kitchen dresser or pewter cupboard, is a piece of wooden furniture consisting of drawers and cupboards in the lower part, (a sideboard

Sideboard

A sideboard is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes such as silver, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers, all topped by a flat display surface for conveniently holding...

) and shelves on top. Traditionally, it is a utilitarian piece of furniture used to store and display crockery, silverware and pewter-ware, but is also used to display general ornaments.

Originally, a dresser was located in the kitchen and was an utilitarian piece of furniture where meat and other food was dressed or prepared, while prepared food was placed on sideboards in the dining room ready to be served. They could be modified to suit local needs; for example, dressers in the Scottish Highlands may have a "porridge drawer" — a tin lined drawer into which freshly made porridge was emptied and left to cool. When cold, slices of the porridge could be cut out and taken out of the house for later consumption. Gradually the purely utilitarian function of the dresser was supplemented with other functions, such as a means of displaying the best crockery in a farmhouse. Once it became a means of display the dresser could also be found in dining rooms were it served as sideboard and a place to store and display dinner ware.

See also

• dresser (furniture)
• hutch (furniture)
  Hutch (furniture)
  A hutch is an American English word for a type of furniture.Now usually used to describe a set of shelves or cabinets placed on top of a lower unit with a counter and either drawers or cabinets. Hutches are often seen in the form of desks, dining room or kitchen furniture...