Antique Cellarette Cabinet
These antique cellarette cabinet pieces are solid timber containers built to hold wine and spirits, offering serious presence in a room.
Antique Cellarette Cabinet
An antique cellarette cabinet serves as a dedicated storage chest for bottles, emerging across periods from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. The selection on this page covers forms such as cocktail cabinets, drinks cabinets, and wine bottle storage chests.
Most examples you meet here date from the nineteenth century, including Victorian and William IV pieces, alongside earlier Georgian items. Makers employed styles ranging from Regency and Egyptian Revival to Art Deco.
Forms vary from chests of drawers to tray top cabinets and pedestals. Each piece reflects the social habits of its original dining room or parlour setting.
How they were made
Cabinet makers relied heavily on timber, constructing bodies in mahogany, burr walnut, oak, and rosewood. These woods provided the necessary structural strength and rich grain patterns required for formal furniture.
Metal components such as brass, iron, and general hardware reinforced joints and formed hinges or handles. Interior elements occasionally incorporated glass and mirror work for display surfaces.
Antique Cellarette Cabinet Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical asking prices for cellarette cabinet among the pieces listed under this phrase on Sellingantiques today, from the lower quarter to the upper quarter. They describe what is for sale here now, not the wider market.
One listed plate-warmer pedestal hints at dinners where cold plates were simply unacceptable.
What varies in quality
The distinction between standard items and superior examples lies in the selection of timber veneers and the crispness of carved details. High quality pieces exhibit thoughtful proportions and integrated decorative schemes like Egyptian taste motifs.
Hardware choice and internal layout separate ordinary storage from masterwork construction. Finer cellarettes show careful joinery in every hidden partition and drawer runner.
Gillows
The Antique Cellarette Cabinet Glossary
- Cellarette
- A lockable container or cabinet designed specifically for holding bottles of wine and spirits near the dining table.
- Pedestal
- A tall, freestanding support base, occasionally adapted to house warming equipment or bottle storage.
- Tray top
- A raised rim around the upper surface of a cabinet or table designed to prevent items from sliding off.
- Burr walnut
- A prized timber cut from walnut tree growths, valued for its swirling, highly figured grain patterns.
Antique Cellarette Cabinet: Frequently Asked Questions
What is an antique cellarette cabinet?
An antique cellarette cabinet is a specialised storage container built to hold wine bottles and spirits securely within a formal room.
These pieces range from early Georgian wine chests to later Victorian cocktail cabinets and William IV drawer forms.
How were cellarettes used originally?
They sat in dining rooms or parlours to keep wine and liquor close at hand during meals without requiring constant trips to the cellar.
Servants retrieved bottles from the locked interior as needed by the host and guests.
Where do I put a cellarette cabinet?
A cellarette cabinet works well in a dining room, living room, or study as a functional statement piece for storing bottles and glassware.
Their compact footprints allow them to stand against walls or beside seating areas.
How do I date these cabinets?
Dating relies on observing the timber species, construction methods, and stylistic cues such as Regency or Art Deco details.
Periods represented here span from mid eighteenth century Georgian items up to nineteen-twenty designs.