The wood is of mahogany, inlaid with fine lines of holly. The little shield-shaped escutcheons at the keyholes are of ivory. There are three drawers above the cupboards and two bottle drawers. Upon the top, at each end, is a wine-cooler of Sheffield plate, and in the centre is a mahogany inlaid knife-box similar to the one in Illustration [78]. This sideboard is owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston.
Illus. 85.—Sheraton Sideboard, about 1800.
A Sheraton sideboard of later date is shown in Illustration [85]. It is of mahogany, and was probably made about 1800. The arched open space in the middle was left for the cellaret, which was the usual accompaniment of the sideboard in those days of hard drinking. The top of this sideboard is surmounted by drawers, with a back above the drawers. The legs and the columns above them are reeded, and the little columns at the corners of the upper drawers are carved, the inner ones with a sheaf of wheat, and the two outside corners with the acanthus leaf. This sideboard was formerly owned by Rejoice Newton, Esq., of Worcester, from whom it has descended to Waldo Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester.
Illus. 86.—Sheraton Sideboard, about 1805.
Illustration [86] shows the latest type of a Sheraton sideboard, owned by the Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania, and now in “Stenton,” the house built in 1727 by James Logan, William Penn’s secretary. The sideboard stands where it was placed, about 1805, by George Logan, the great-great grandson of James. The wood is mahogany, and the large square knife-boxes were evidently made to fit the sideboard. The legs, with spade feet, are short, bringing the body of the sideboard close to the floor. The handles are brass knobs.
Illus. 87.—Cellarets, 1790.
Cellarets were made as a part of the dining-room furniture. They were lined with zinc, to hold the ice in which the wine bottles were packed to cool, and at the lower edge of the body of the cellaret was a faucet, or some arrangement by which the water from the melted ice could be drawn off. They were designed by Chippendale and all of his contemporaries and by the later cabinet-makers,—Adam, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton.