An 18th century desk - for work or for drinking pleasure?

In the later C18th, when the object called a sideboard was transforming into a large and important piece of furniture, the cellaret was merely a detached receptacle. The cellaret was an elegant piece of mahogany furniture, almost always designed in the neo-classicist style, that could be octagonal, circular or oval. The important part was actually inside, lined with zinc partitions to hold the bottles and ice. A tap might be fixed in the lower part for drawing off the water from the melted ice.

Cellarets reached their heyday during the second half of the 18th century, perfect timing for British designer Robert Adam (1728–1792). In his Works In Architecture of 1778, Adam suggested that his countrymen liked to partake of wine even more than the French!

The considerable amount of wine consumed by the Eng­lish and French upper class required bespoke furniture forms that could accommodate the storing, chilling and serving of wine. Important diners did not want to have to wait for the serving staff to be racing back and forward to the large wine cellar below the house, or out in the gardens of the estate.

George II cellaret, mahogany
40 cm high; 73 cm wide; 38 cm deep. 

George III cellaret, mahogany
with reeded corners
zinc lining and zinc partitions,
44 cm high, 78 cm wide, 57 cm deep
photo: Online Galleries

Some craftsmen chose to specialise in cellaret design and manufacture. Cellarets could be built into sideboards that would have stood in the dining room. Others were free standing i.e plain or decorated containers that did nothing beyond what a cellaret was designed to do – hold bottles of wine. For example, see the George II mahogany cellaret in the top photo that had a rather plain, hinged rectangular top enclosing divisions for eighteen bottles. The sides were carried by handles and then sat on the floor on bracket feet.

But then I found a cellaret in a piece of furniture that a] had nothing to do with food or drink and b] was never placed in a dining room. Examine a George II mahogany pedestal desk (below) that had oak drawer linings and gilt metal mounts - this desk would have sat proudly in the study. Yet the pedestal desk hid two secrets - an unusual cellaret drawer and a side compart­ment for glasses. The elegance of its design, quality of timber and craftsmanship, and its fine quality gilt metal handles suggest a dis­tinguished London workshop. But what was the owner thinking, having quiet tipples in his study, perhaps with an important guest? And did his wife know?

George II pedestal desk

Mahogany, c1760

148 x 77 x 75 cms

Photo credit: Solomon Bly

same desk with zinc cellaret

same desk with compartment for glasses

The auction house Solomon Bly suggested that Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) might have been the London cabinet-maker responsible for this clever, hidden design. This is not as far fetched as it seems since Chippendale was known to have collaborated in furnishing a couple of interiors designed by Robert Adam. But did he make hundreds of desks with a zinc cellaret and a space for glasses, or was this a once-off design for a special friend?

Some time later I found a George III mahogany cabinet that was never a desk; rather it looked like an expensive chest of drawers. At the bottom, two of the "drawers" were actually a cellaret with fourteen compartments for wine bottles. Auctioned by Aingers, this chest of drawers was 91cm high, 65cm wide, 42cm deep. It too suggests to me that Georgian gentlemen with money were very inventive with the furniture they used to store, or perhaps hide, wine.

George III mahogany, apparently a normal chest of drawers

Contains a cellaret with 14 compartments for wine bottles.
91cm x 65cm x 42cm.
Photo credit: EJ Ainger