Cellaret

A cellarette or cellaret is a small furniture cabinet, available in various sizes, shapes, and designs which is used to store bottles of alcoholic beverages such as wine and whiskey.

Wood box containers as freestanding alcoholic beverage cabinets first appeared in Europe in the fifteenth century to hold and to secure alcoholic beverages in public houses. Cellarettes first appeared in colonial America in the eighteenth century as a form of the European liquor cabinet. The main purpose of a liquor cabinet or cellarette was to secure wine and whiskey from theft as the bottles were hidden and the cabinet could have a lock.

During the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War army officers' cellarettes often came with crystal decanters, shot glasses, pitchers, funnels, and drinking goblets. Eighteenth century cellarette designs were used into the twentieth century. Cellarettes of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries were found in taverns and pubs and, in some cases, in the private homes of the elite.

Prohibition in the United States brought about variations of trompe l'oeil cellarettes designed to conceal illegal alcoholic beverages. To the casual observer, the three dimensional trompe l'oeil artwork on these cellarettes made them appear to be an ordinary table, bookcase, or other piece of furniture.

Cellarettes in England and America were custom designed wooden chests to carry, transport and store small numbers of bottled alcoholic beverages. They were often made of fine decorative wood like mahogany, rosewood, or walnut and could be of various shapes and sizes. Cellarettes were generally associated with dining room furniture. Sometimes cellarettes were small portable pieces of furniture with handles that could be moved from room to room in a house. Another type was a permanent piece of furniture built on a stand with a sliding shelf to hold glasses and a drawer for serving paraphernalia.

They could be free standing or built into a "pedestal-end" dining room buffet serving sideboard. Normally a cellarette had a hinged door or hinged top cover. Frequently a lock was provided, to secure the contents from thieves. Some cellarettes were lined internally with metal. This allowed wine or food to be iced keeping them longer than if they were at room temperature. The metal also prevented melted ice water from soaking into the wood. Men of wealth had as many as three cellarettes at a time as a status symbol, not necessarily indicating one was a heavy drinker.

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