Chiffonier
A chiffonier, also chiffonnier, may be used to describe at least two types of furniture. Its name comes directly from a French piece of furniture, the chiffonier. The French name, which comes from the French for a rag-picker, suggests that it was originally intended as a receptacle for odds and ends which had no place elsewhere. British chiffonier. In British usage, a chiffonier is similar to a sideboard, but differentiated by its smaller size and by the enclosure of the whole of the front by doors. 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 chiffoniers 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. American chiffonier. In North America, a chiffonier is quite  different. There it refers to a tall, narrow and elegant chest of drawers, frequently with a mirror attached on top. It is also one half of the American portmanteau piece of furniture called a chifforobe.