WARDROBE, a portable upright cupboard for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommodation was provided for the sumptuous apparel of the great. The name of wardrobe was then given to a room in which the wall-space was filled with cupboards and lockers. As a "hanging cupboard" it dates back to the early 17th century. For probably Ioo years such pieces, massive, but often with well-carved fronts, were made in fair numbers. During the 18th century the tallboy (q.v.) was much
used for clothes. Towards its end, however, the wardrobe began to develop into its modern form, with a hanging cupboard at each side, a press in the upper part of the central portion and drawers below. As a rule it was of mahogany, but so soon as satinwood and other finely grained foreign woods began to be obtainable in considerable quantities, many elaborately and even magnificently inlaid wardrobes were made. The central doors, which had hither to enclosed merely the upper part, were carried to the floor and were fitted with mirrors.