ANTIQUE WHATNOTS AND WINE COOLERS (CELLARETS)
ANTIQUE WHATNOTS
A whatnot is a term usually applied to a shelved piece of furniture for incidental use, with or without a drawer and either mobile (on castors) or fixed. Examples date from about 1800 and have the usual characteristic turned uprights with collars or ‘bamboo’ double-collared designs. Later, like Canterburies, they exhibit Victorian features such as scrolled fretted carving, burr veneers and bulbous legs. A fitted drawer adds to the value, while a pair of large (preferably over 5ft.) Georgian whatnots would command a very high premium.
A large mahogany whatnot of four shelves with a drawer at the bottom and a three-sided gallery on top. More decorative examples are to be found.
A mahogany whatnot with a turned gallery to the top shelf and a central drawer. The gallery helps the price.
A rosewood whatnot with spirally turned uprights and a (broken) fretted gallery to the top. The drawer adds to the price but the effect is much heavier. 1820-1840
A walnut corner whatnot of elaborate turning and fretted decoration. The top fretwork is broken. Very much the heavy Victorian appearance.
A mahogany whatnot with elegant baluster turned supports without a drawer. The effect is one of lightness. 1810-1830
A typical George III mahogany octagonal cellaret, bound in brass, on square reeded legs with fretted brackets at the top corners.
Brass banded oval version on stand with square tapering legs inlaid with a stringing line. Nice flat period leather castors. If this was much shallower and was detachable with a brass handle, it would be an oyster
bucket.
Brass bound mahogany octagonal cellaret on square tapering legs. Less brass and decoration than the previous example. 1790-1800
Highly decorative carved mahogany oval cellaret with reeded tapering columns and lid. The classical decoration is in the Adam manner.
WINE COOLERS or cellarets, 1790-1830
Oval Sheraton satinwood cross-banded in tulipwood, on tapering legs with collar. Maximum use has been made of the contrasting direction of the grain. 1790-1820
A cellaret, or wine cooler, was quite an important piece of furniture for those who had not yet acquired an Adam sideboard where the wine could be stored in a pedestal cupboard.
The wine cooler was the receptacle in which the wine was stored before use at the table a sort of distribution stop between cellar and wine glass, but, more importantly, a means of cooling those wines which had to be served chilled. Certainly many of them have metal liners.
The wine cooler appears to have enjoyed a relatively brief and later Georgian boom after which the Victorians seem to have established, in their more commodious sideboards and cabinets, a means of keeping the wine
from sight without a separate container.
As many of them contain relatively little workmanship in proportion to their market value, they have been hugely faked especially the simpler (i.e. easier) Georgian variety.
Mahogany inlaid with boxwood and ebony stringing on serpentine bracket feet. It looks out of proportion because the front legs are propped up for the photograph. 1790-1820
Mahogany sarcophagus-shaped wine cooler with lion-mask handles and reeded moulding, on splayed feet.
Mahogany bow-fronted and inlaid with stringing lines of various colours. Underneath there is a separate drawer. The out-of-proportion feet suggest a piece after Hope.
The mahogany equivalent of example 1007. Cross-banded on the top and inlaid with brass handles, Plain legs with brass castors.
Brass bound oval cooler on stand with ‘Hepplewhite’ scrolled legs in the French manner. The top edge is gadrooned.
Mahogany wine cooler on stand, with turned legs and collars.
Mahogany Sheraton cooler with lion-mask handles, inlaid shell motif, black stringing. On splay feet with castors.
Tags: Antique, Canterburies, cellaret, characteristic, COOLERS, cupboard, DECORATION, inlaid, Mahogany, sheraton, tulipwood, Victoria, VICTORIAN, victorian features, WHATNOTS, wine, Wine Coolers, workmanship