Mahogany, poplar, and yellow pine
Southeastern Virginia,
probably Williamsburg
c. 1770 A cellarette was a piece of dining-room furniture designed to hold case bottles containing wine or spirits. The piece is believed to have belonged originally to Carter Braxton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who lived at Elsing Green Plantation in New Kent County, Virginia. It descended through the Anderson family of Richmond.

Two other Virginia-made cellarettes identical to this example are known. One descended in the William Byrd family of Westover Plantation on the James River, and is now in the collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The other descended in the Nelson family of neighboring Yorktown, suggesting that all three examples were probably produced by the same cabinetmaking shop located in the Williamsburg area.

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Last Updated: January 2, 2008