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Trays, knife-boxes, cutlery-urns, wine coolers, cellarets, and buckets
TRAYS
Known as “voyders” in the Middle Ages, and conceived not only for clearing away but also for the presentation of delicacies and sweetmeats, the earliest utilitarian trays were probably made of pewter and wood. During the late 17th century lacquered trays imported by the East India companies and European japanned versions revolutionized tray designs. The fashion for tea in the early 18th century was directly reflected upon all of the component parts of the tea ceremony.
Modest trays in oak and elm also survive from the early 18th century, and from the 1750s mahogany trays first appeared in pattern-hooks. Thomas Chippendale (1718-79), in the first edition of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754), included four designs for trays in the Chinese style with carved fret borders. However, this type is very rare, and Chippendale also supplied designs for plain rectangular trays. From the 1780s trays became increasingly decorative; they were made in mahogany, and other exotic timbers, were sometimes richly inlaid with shells, fan-parquetry, and foliate arabesques of stained fruitwood, or were painted. Late 18th- and early 19th-century trays were dominated by the fashion for japanning, particularly in papier-mache. A process long practised in Persia (now Iran), it was patented in 1772 by the firm of Henry Clay, in Birmingham, and later by Jennens &, Bettridge (active 1816-64) in London. Although papier-mache trays were often of scalloped form, rectangular trays with similar decoration were also fashionable, particularly those of tole peinte or polychrome-painted metal.
KNIFE-BOXES AND CUTLERY-URNS
Supplied in pairs as ornamental containers for silver and enamel-handled cutlery and designed to stand prominently on the serving table, knife-boxes came into fashion during the reign of George II ( 1727-60). Although the basic form, with a serpentine front, remained remarkably unchanged until the 1780s, George 11 knife-boxes were often ten covered with silk-velvet or shagreen, rather than veneered. From the 1760s knife-boxes in mahogany were made and are characterized by their bow-fronted form, hinged slope with drop-handles, and shaped bracket or claw-and-ball feet; they are unembellished apart from the cockbeaded or chequerbanded edges. The interiors, with slopes pierced with holes to display the cutlery in tiers, were also often silk lined but otherwise restrained. During the 1770s their decoration became increasingly lavish, with crossbanding and featherbanding, ebony-inlaid star parquetry to the slopes, and even stylized green-stained shell inlay – a motif particularly identified with North Country workshops – while the feet were discarded altogether in favour of Classical plinths. With the age of satinwood ( 1780-1800), elaborate Neo-classical embellishments became commonplace, and these were often complemented by richly engraved Sheffield plate Mounts. During the 1780s the vase-form knife-box, published by George Hepplewhite (d.1786) in The Cabinet-Maker and upholsterer’s Guide ( 1788-94), was designed to stand either set at each end of the sideboard or on pedestals. Made of satinwood or other light woods, the most refined examples were painted or inlaid with Neo-classical marquetry, arabesques, and simulated flutes, while the spring-loaded lids opened to reveal a chequerbanded interior with concentric tiers for the display of cutlery. During the early 19th century, knife-boxes and cutlery-urns became increasingly redundant both by sideboards with fitted drawers for storage, and by cutlery-urns being affixed to pedestals.
WINE COOLERS AND CELLARETS
As wine was an expensive luxury, receptacles for cooling and storing wine – whether of open-topped cistern (wine cooler) or lidded cellaret form, fitted with a lock, with divisions for bottles –were often lavishly decorated. Although metal and marble cellarets were first recorded in Britain in the late 17th century, it was not until the mid-18th century that lead-lined mahogany examples carved in the Rococo taste were made. Perhaps the most celebrated wine cooler is the Georgian form with a hexagonal or oval body, made of vertical sections of mahogany held together with two or three brass bands.
Neo-classical wine coolers and cellarets were usually conceived en suite with sideboards and pedestals, and were still predominantly of mahogany, although exotic timbers such as satinwood, padouk, and rosewood were also used. Although wine coolers with serpentine-channelled flutes to the body, which were directly inspired by Roman sarcophagi, and those with elaborate marquetry in a lighter style, continued to be made in the 1780s and 1790s, the most common examples were plainer mahogany- hooped with brass, with the lead-lined inside divided with partitions for the bottles. It is from this date that the majority of canted rectangular, circular, dome-lidded, and octagonal examples survive. Increasingly restrained in form and decoration, cellarets were rendered somewhat redundant by the inclusion of cellaret-drawers within designs for dining-room pedestals and sideboards.
During the early 19th century the lidded cellarets of Roman sarcophagus form, which were often of much larger size than its 18th-century predecessors, dominated Regency
pattern-books, and generally do not have stands. While firms such as Dillow (est. c.1730) of
Lancaster, Continued to supply cellarets in superbly figured
mahogany, from 1810 cabinet-makers under the
influence of George Bullock (c.1777-1818) increasingly promoted the use of indigenous English woods such as pollard oak and elm, frequently enriched with foliate marquetry arabesques in the “Buhl” style. However, from the 1830s this decoration became increasingly lavish, often combined with carving, and later Victorian cellarets arc often betrayed by their squatter, heavier proportions.
PLATE-BUCKETS AND PEAT-BUCKETS Plate-buckets are distinguished by their one-dished side that enabled servants to remove plates easily and straight-sided, or even polygonal form. Inspired by the need to ferry- plates the long distances from the kitchen to the dining-room, and usually made in pairs, plate-buckets were initially intended to be placed near the fire to keep the plates warm. The plate-bucket lent itself easily to embellishment and carving with pierced Gothick arcades, Chinese blind fretwork, and even marquetry inlay in the Neo-classical style; plain types were also made. The role of the plate-bucket was superseded in the late 18th century by the warmers enclosed within dining-room pedestals, and thus plate-buckets became increasingly plain, purely for use by servants for carrying china to the dining-room. The “peat-bucket” is an Irish term for a container traditionally thought to have been used for carrying peat to the fireplace. However, this is now thought to be unlikely as the bucket and peat together would have been very heavy indeed. It is now thought that they were used for carrying any number of items, including oysters. Although buckets are usually considered an English form, 18th- and 19th-century ones from The Netherlands arc among the most common found today, and can be distinguished from their English counterparts by their slightly smaller proportions, ribbed tapering bodies and, most characteristically, by the alternating use of light fruitwood and mahogany to give a streaked effect to the bodies.
• TRAYS 18th-century mahogany trays are rare; those that exist are often made from the leaves of old dining-tables; papier-mache trays may suffer from craquelure and
flaking; the best papier-mache examples have mother-of-pearl inlay.
• KNIFE-BOXES many have had the insides removed so that they could be converted to other uses – often as writing-cases in the 19th century; a premium is attached to those that retain their original fitments; examples with shell inlay sire usually from the North Country and Scotland; pairs of cutlery urns are very desirable.
• WINE COOLERS rare examples are those from the 18th century of carved mahogany or walnut.
• PLATE- AND PEAT-BUCKETS these are faked in huge numbers, often from old timber; look out for indications of consistent old damage, shrinkage, and seams to the brass bands, and beware of suspicious stains.

Screens
The earliest known screens were made in China, but they are recorded in Europe from at least the Middle Ages and regularly mentioned in 15th-century inventories. It wa
until the coming of electricity that their role in the household changed dramatically, from temperature regulator to decorative art form.
TYPES OF SCREEN
Screens developed from sheer need; until recently, draughts and the excesses of heat from open fires were a way of life in every region where the chills of winter were felt. A number of pieces of furniture were developed to combat these problems — the wing armchair enclosed the sitter and helped him or her to keep warm, and settles, Often curved and with solid backs,
draughts and contained the heat.
However, the most versatile piece of
furniture was the folding screen. It could
be large with hinged leaves, sometimes up
to 12 in number and occasionally even
more. It was practical because, however
large, it could easily be folded and stored
away. Alternatively, a small screen with
an adjustable panel could protect a localized area from the heat of the fire. The screen’s place was at the heart of the household, so its quality openly reflected the status of the owner. Screens were therefore made of a variety of materials, from wood to leather and the most
expensive and decorative cloths. They could also be made of wicker: one featured in the painting The Virgin Child before a Firescreen (c.1440; National Gallery, London) by a follower of the Flemish artist Robert Campin. It shows the Virgin sitting on a low settle, with her head framed halo-like against a circular wicker screen placed before a fireplace.
LACQUERED AND JAPANNED SCREENS
The voyages of discovery opened up the trade routes with the East, and the East India companies were set up to foster this business. By the mid-17th century trade in Oriental curiosities with China and japan established a taste for the East, which spread and had an enduring impact on furniture ornament and design.
China and Japan had long enjoyed a tradition of sophisticated workmanship. In the West there was a fascination with their blue-and-white porcelain, but furniture was also imported into Europe. The screen Was an important feature of the Oriental interior.
There the room settings were highly formalized, and in Japan, particularly, solid pieces of furniture were few. Screens were used as room dividers, gave privacy when required, and protected against draughts. They were also designed to be easily movable and, therefore, were ideal for export. The flow to Europe rapidly increased, as Oriental screens translated well to the European interior. More importantly, they gave broad displays of sought-after Oriental lacquer and ornamentation. Chinese lacquer screens were known as “Coromandel” or “bantamwork” screens in the West. However, the demand for lacquer soon outstripped supply; Oriental screens are mentioned in the inventories of every great house between 1700 and 1750. True Oriental lacquer could not be produced in Europe because its main ingredient was the sap of the Rhus vernicifera tree,
China and later introduced to Japan and to C South-East Asia, but not grown in Europe. Once the sap had been dried, it could be applied in coats, forming a crust so hard that it could be carved in relief. Colour, traditionally black, red, and aubergine, could also be added to the sap. In Europe an imitation based on shellac (made from insect secretions) was developed, known as japanning.
The drawing-room was not the only part of the house heated by open fires and so requiring screens. In the dining-room, people often made strenuous efforts to avoid being the ones who sat at table with their backs to the fire. To relieve scorching backs and protect the sitter, a screen of woven cane was introduced, which Could be hooked to the back of a chair and extend from the head to the seat. Such small, easily movable screens were also used as splashbacks on washstands to protect the walls.
The increasing introduction of enclosed fires,
and particularly of electricity and central heating, has made the screen almost redundant. Some fine-quality examples are works of art in their own right and survive as a result, but vast numbers have been put away and damaged through neglect. Some, for example scrapwork and leather screens, are rarely in complete and undamaged condition. A screen that is in its original state and not in need of repair is a real find.

• CONDITION leather and scrapwork screens are vulnerable – check that they arc complete, as repair is costly; if the panels on a screen display an incomplete picture, the value will be lowered; scrapwork screens in good condition are generally collectable
• ALTECATIONS some polescreens have been converted into tripod tables or music stands; check for strange proportions of the top to the stand; check that polescreen insets are contemporary to the frame
• COLLECTING fire- and polescreens are the least commercial – other types are more popular, and value is based on scarcity of material, rarity of maker, and quality; when wallpaper and paints replaced 17th-century wall panels of embossed Icatherwork, sections of the leather were often made into screens; on 19th screens, surrounds of giltwood are more desirable than gilt gesso, and less likely to be damaged

Writing cabinets-on-stands
Small slope-topped writing boxes were known from medieval times, and during the 16th and early 17th centuries they continued to be associated with the needs of a highly educated elite. With their sloping lids, often lipped at the lower edge, they could double as reading lecterns, and many were decorated with carving, inlay, or painting. Inside they were fitted with compartments and small drawers for papers and writing equipment. Conveniently portable, they could be used on top of a table or chest.
EARLY CABINETS-ON-STANDS
During the second half of the 17th century a new form of writing compendium, with its own base support, was developed. Also known as a scriptor, or, in France, an escritoire, the writing cabinet-onstand was a rectangular structure, based on the
Spanish vargueno (writing desk) Instead of a sloping lift-up top, it had a fall front concealing drawers and pigeon holes, which opened to form a writing surface supported on cords at either side. The exterior presented an inviting
surface for veneering. Fine examples were made with oyster veneers of walnut or cocus wood, or with floral or “seaweed” marquetry; some cabinets were inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, or japanned to imitate Oriental lacquer. The most spectacular, japanned in brilliant colours on white or light-coloured grounds, were by Gerard Dagly (1657-1715) of Berlin. The legs of the stand were baluster or spiral turned typical of fashionable furniture of this period. Already, by the close of the I 7th century, many of these cabinets had a distinctly feminine flavour, with compartments for toiletries, jewellery, and writing equipment.
Alongside the development of the mainstream bureau and bureau cabinet in the early 18th century was that of the slightly built slope-topped writing desk of bureau form, set upon a cabriole-legged base, with frieze drawers. Some of these desks were surmounted by toilet mirrors, showing their dual function as writing and dressing tables. Typically, they were veneered in walnut or marquetry, but some fine examples are decorated with japanning.
drawer below. French examples were lavishly decorated, with gilt-bronze mounts and fine marquetry veneers of unusual woods, and sometimes with porcelain plaques, or panels of Oriental lacquer. By the last quarter of the 18th century the cabriole supports – the last vestiges of the Rococo – were discarded in favour of straight-tapered legs, often with gilded grooves and understretchers.
The English interpretation of the bonheur du jour was more restrained, relying for its elegance on finely figured timbers and well-judged proportions; edges were straight and legs square tapered. Mahogany or satinwood was often contrasted with bandings or panels of rosewood, sycamore, tulip, or box. Both French and British styles were adopted by cabinet-makers in other parts of Europe. Porcelain plaques, marquetry, and ormolu mounts all appear on bonheurs du jour in Germany, Austria, and Poland, but the structure of such pieces tends to be spare and square rather than voluptuous.

• WRITING CABINETS-ON-STANDS some early very
fine examples were decorated with veneered with burr-walnut, oyster veneering or marquetry (floral or “seaweed”), inlaid or japanned; this type of furniture although not always very useful (unlike the bureau in all its forms) is very desirable, so unless the decoration is very badly damaged, they will still generally command high prices.
• BONHEURS DU JOUR usually very popular items of decorative furniture; those made in the late 18th-century style of Sheraton are particularly popular.
LATER CABINETS-ON-STANDS
In France, luxurious writing-cum-toilet tables for use in ladies’ apartments were made in large numbers from the beginning of the Rococo period in the early 18th century. Veneered in fine marquetry of exotic woods, and with cabriole legs, they were embellished with cast-and gilt-bronze mounts. Some of these bureaux de dames had sloping lids to the superstructures, while another type, the secretaire n capucin, had a flat writing surface opening out from the table top, and a superstructure of drawers and compartments rising from the back. By the late 1760s the bonheur du jour was an established form of ladies’ writing table. As its name suggests, it was destined for the feminine “delight of the day”, i.e. letter writing. It had a flat writing surface at the front, varying arrangements of shelves, drawers, or small cupboards at the back, and a drawer below. French examples were lavishly decorated, with gilt-bronze mounts and fine marquetry veneers of unusual woods, and sometimes with porcelain plaques, or panels of Oriental lacquer. By the last quarter of the 18th century the cabriole supports – the last vestiges of the Rococo – were discarded in favour of straight-tapered legs, often with gilded grooves and understretchers.
The English interpretation of the bonheur du jour was more restrained, relying for its elegance on finely figured timbers and well-judged proportions; edges were straight and legs square tapered. Mahogany or satinwood was often contrasted with bandings or panels of rosewood, sycamore, tulip, or box. Both French and British styles were adopted by cabinet-makers in other parts of Europe. Porcelain plaques, marquetry, and ormolu mounts all appear on bonheurs du jour in Germany, Austria, and Poland, but the structure of such pieces tends to be spare and square rather than voluptuous.

Cabinets-on-stands
Created for the storage of papers and valuables, the earliest cabinets, known as “table-cabinets” as they stood on tables rather than stands, came into fashion in the 16th century. During this period they were made in Tuscany with inlaid architectural decoration, and in Augsburg with stylized Mannerist marquetry depicting architectural ruins and mythical beasts in the style of Lorenz Stoer’s Geometrica et Perspectiva ( 1567); in Spain cabinets were made with Moorish-inspired mudejar (marquetry), or in ebony with parquetry (these were also produced in the Spanish Netherlands).
MARQUETRY AND LACQUERED CABINETS
The Baroque love of rich, florid decoration led to the fashion for oyster-veneered and marquetry cabinets-on-stands, the production of which was dominated by Huguenot craftsmen trained in Amsterdam and The Hague. In the late 17th century oyster-veneering was gradually superseded by such elaborate decoration as “seaweed” marquetry, which in turn gave way to Boulle marquetry on a tortoiseshell or kingwood ground. Interestingly the illusionistic floral marquetry panels executed by Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) at the Gobelins workshops in Paris were no doubt inspired by Dutch 17th-century  still-life paintings. Floral marquetry cabinets, often enriched with mother-of-pearl or green-stained ivory, were executed throughout Europe from the 1660s, but the most celebrated makers were Jan van Mekeren (1658-1733) in Amsterdam, and Pierre Gole c.1620-84) in Paris. Often decorated with flowers and birds, even exotic parrots, Dutch and English examples of the William and Mary period (1689-1702) arc usually of walnut with oak-lined drawers, the stands enclosing two drawers and supported on four, five, or six baluster or bar-twist legs with waved stretchers and bun
Japanese and Chinese lacquer cabinets were first imported by the Fast India companies in the 17th century. Usually decorated with gilt chinoiseries on aubergine, black, or red lacquer grounds, they were mounted in silver, copper, or brass, with chased hinges and escutcheons. Oriental cabinets were exported without stands, and late 17th-century stands made in The Netherlands, Britain, and Germany tend to be in the florid Baroque taste, with caryatids in the angles and deep, pierced foliate aprons.
In the late 17th century, in response to the demand for and cost of Oriental lacquer, European craftsmen created japanning. This technique was first practised in Berlin by Gerard Dagly (1657-1710, and in England by John Stalker and George Parker who wrote A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing (1688). Later 18th-century examples are distinguished by the design of their stands, which were usually also japanned, and often enriched with Chinese fret angle-brackets.
In the 19th century the cabinet-on-stand was replaced by the display cabinet. As a result, 19th-century cabinets-on-stands tend to hark back to 17th-century prototypes, in particular those with ebony-and-tortoiseshell veneer, or of a full-blown Baroque character, with Boulle or floral marquetry and Pietro dure plaques.
• MARQUETRY CABINETS a flat stretcher is commonly used on the stand; frequently the legs have been replaced, and this will reduce value; ivory inlay is a sign of good quality; the marquetry on the inside of the cabinet should be of a rich contrast to the outside, as it has not been exposed to sunlight, and should retain its vibrant colours; during the 1770s and again in the 1840s there was an interest in antiquarianism, and 17th-century marquetry door panels were often removed and reused in more fashionable pieces of furniture.
• JAPANNING when chipped, it reveals a whitish gesso.