THE ROYCROFTERS | AN IMPORTANT AND RARE CELLARETTE, MODEL NO. 019

Private Family Collection, Bedford, New York, circa 1905

Acquired from the above by the present owner

The Roycrofters, Roycroft Handmade Furniture, East Aurora, NY, 1906, p. 14

Tod M. Volpe and Beth Cathers, Treasures of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, 1890-1920, New York, 1988, p. 57

Wendy Kaplan, The Art That is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920, Boston, 1987, p. 316

Wendy Kaplan, The Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe & America: Design for the Modern World, New York, 2004, p. 277 

Karen Livingstone and Linda Parry, eds., International Arts and Crafts, exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2005, p. 153

Founded in East Aurora, New York in 1895 by Elbert Hubbard, the Roycroft community was one of the most successful Arts and Crafts ventures in America. With shops that spanned book binding, leaded-glass and furniture making, the chief criterion that guided the Roycrofter’s diverse endeavors was to produce works with impeccable craftsmanship. Stylistically, their products embody the quintessential tenants of the Arts & Crafts movement which they helped to create. Their furniture is characterized by austere lines, rigid geometry, and the absence of decoration, placing emphasis on form and volume and prioritizing functionality. In the present Cellarette, the firm surpasses the domestic, utilitarian needs of their craft to create an incredibly innovative total work of art.

An extraordinarily rare model, the Cellarette is deceptively complex and typifies the Roycrofter’s ideals of honest integrity of materials and functionality. The table top features a dramatic overhang on the left and right, capping the elegantly canted sides of the case. The tenon-and-key construction at the corners accent the form without over-embellishing. On the interior is a revolving tray designed to house bottles and glassware, as well as a shelf for an ice bucket. The overall silhouette is highly nuanced: it is both bold and subtle, recalling the California mission style of furniture that was popular in the period while drawing on the colonial past of the United States. The unique melding of aesthetics is wholly Roycroft’s own, particularly through its method of execution. In creating this piece, wood was first kiln and air dried, and then given a special finishing technique exclusive to the Roycrofters. The finely wrought bronze fittings were produced in the Roycroft community’s own metalsmithing studio and are reminiscent of the metalwork of designer C.F.A Voysey.

The present lot is the only known example with hardware executed in bronze, as well as the only example with this style and shape of hardware. These unique features of the present example point to the possibility that it may have been a prototype for other later models that were made with copper hardware. Other examples of this model are in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Two Red Roses Foundation, Palm Harbor, Florida.