One of my closest friends is the architectural historian Jane Harding. We became acquainted when both of us worked for the amenity society The Georgian Group, with Jane busy as a caseworker, reviewing planning applications for changes to Georgian built environment in the north of England. Me? I was beavering away in the basement, trying to organize moldy boxfiles that contained decades old casework records. I’ll say this, despite performing my work in a magnificent Robert Adam terrace house, dust and dirt are still noisome, no matter that it’s from the 18th century.
Perhaps one of the reasons I love Jane is that, as well as bright, she is possibly yet more forthright than I am. One of my favorite Jane stories involves her declination to visit some 18th century houses in the American southeast, dismissed, as she put, as examples of ‘debased regionalism.’ Did I say forthright? ‘Acerbic’ might be nearer the mark. That said, she does make a point, inadvertently, and something that we have to be cognizant every day we’re in business. Specifically, the further something is away from the style centre, the more idiosyncratic its design becomes. That said, idiosyncratic is not bad, but can account for some marked differences.
Just at the moment, there’s some discussion about a consideration of the furniture of the Channel Islands- Jersey, Guernsey, and Sark- dependencies of the Queen of England, 
but not part of England, and geographically much, much closer to the coast of northern France. All this has had an odd impact on material culture, including furniture, with a ready to hand example these late George III bedside tables. The mahogany and tray top with the handholds are materials and motifs that are typically English, as are the round legs and pad feet. That said, the round legs and pad feet are not typical features of an English bedside cupboard. 
Pictured is more familiar example, with a similar tray top, but the cupboard is enclosed, and the legs are square. The other example is French of similar vintage, with an open front, tray top, but no hand holds, and the legs are splayed. The veneer is kingwood, common in French pieces, but not usual in English examples. Often, though, in French bedside cupboards, the wood may be something more mundane, typically apple or pear wood.
The why of this stylistic divergence is probably the subject of a number of scholarly papers. That it is so divergent, given that geographically the distance between the places of origin of these three types of bedside cupboards is possibly as little as 300 miles. 
The point of all this though, is that, debased or not, regionalism can have a profound effect, even on something as prosaic as a bedside cupboard.