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Discover Mid-America - August 2005

Special accessories for 18th century sideboards

Cutlery box. David Dunton, Woodbury, CT. One of pair of cutlery boxes.

Some small, antique decorative accessories can cost as much or more as a piece of furniture. This is true of pieces made to adorn the tops of 18th century English sideboards. These days, many are so out of fashion their original use has long been forgotten.

What do you do with an 18th century knife urn or knife box? Or a small wine cellaret or wine cooler? Well, if you have several thousand dollars these pieces can be status symbols.

A wine cooler can cost over $4,000 at auction, and can be functional. A mahogany knife box or spoon urn could be priced at over $2,000. Cellarets can fetch over $1,500 at auction. These aren’t just containers for cutlery or wine bottles, but elegant examples of the 18th century cabinetmakers’ artistry. Often they show exquisite workmanship from inlays and carving to silver mountings.

Eighteenth century knife urns and boxes, when originally made, were displayed on the sideboards of rich and royal folks. They had a practical purpose. The earliest urns were often made as parts of the sideboard. But, by the end of the 18th century, designs by George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton, the urns had become separate and moveable objects. The Hepplewhite urns sometimes had faucets and the dual purpose of holding iced water or knives. They were lined with lead or other material to hold water. Or, they were made with a top that could be raised on a shaft with “terraces” cut out to hold other eating utensils. They were known as “vases with faucets.”

Spoon urn, possibly Philadelphia, ca 1790. Acanthus Antiques, England.

Since the urns were meant to be on each end of the sideboard, they were made in pairs. It was the custom to keep the lids up to show off the family silver. You could do the same.

Both urns and knife boxes were considered difficult to make and only the most skilled London cabinetmaker specialists undertook the job. They were also made in America by Philadelphia and New York cabinetmakers.

Knife boxes often followed the design of the sideboards. The most popular forms, however, had serpentine curved fronts and were slanted. They were fitted with silver locks and detailed inlays; usually shell motifs. Also made to be used with or placed on top of sideboards was the cellaret. Most familiar is the “sarcophagus”-shaped cellaret. It was the size of a box, lined with lead or other metals, with space to contain a couple of wine bottles. Made of mahogany for the most part, they were on low feet, allowing them to top sideboards. Others were basically rectangular boxes on stands, sometimes with a mixing slide and a drawer.

The trimming was usually brass bands. A late George III example could sell at auction for over $1,500.00. Larger examples, trimmed in silver, could hold six bottles and fetch over $2,000 at auction. Shapes could vary from the sarcophagus to rectangular, eight-sided or oval. Legs could be tapering or ending in the late Sheraton style with brass, animal-paw feet. As with knife boxes, they were often veneered in figured mahogany and lined with metal.

CLUES:

Most late 18th, early 19th American sideboards have cellarette drawers. Few cellarettes have come to light. Those that have been discovered were from Maryland and other southern states. Few knife boxes or urns were made in America. Knife boxes had a sloped top. They were also used for forks and spoons.

Cellarets were made in America during the early Victorian decades. Prices vary depending on the workmanship.

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