Antique Cellarettes
You could argue an antique wine cooler and a cellarette are really the same thing. Generally speaking wine coolers were open topped and took a circular or cistern form, whereas the cellarette was lidded. As wine was a luxury item some cellarettes had a lock and could be elaborately decorated. It was around the mid 18th century lead lining was introduced to keep the bottles as cool as possible. Prior to a meal, wine bottles would be transferred from the cellar to the cellarette. It would sit under the sideboard pedestal and during the meal the bottle would be retrieved to serve the wine (chilled) to the guests. Some classic forms include the lidded (Roman inspired) Sarcophagus shape which would stand low to the ground often on paw feet. From the late 18th century common examples would be more plainer in style with a circular, box or hexagonal (George III style) shape standing on legs off the ground often with partitions for the bottles inside. Some of these featured brass bound strip