Antique English Regency Sarcophagus Wine Cellarette c.1820

Cellarettes in England and America were custom designed wooden chests to carry, transport and store small quantities of bottled alcoholic beverages. They were often made of fine decorative wood like mahogany, rosewood, or walnut and could be of various shapes and sizes. They could be free standing, built into a "pedestal-end" dining room buffet serving sideboard, or portable, with handles. Normally a cellarette had a hinged door or hinged top cover. Frequently a lock was provided, to secure the contents from thieves.

Some cellarettes were internally lined for wine or iced foods, which would keep longer when chilled than at room temperature. Cellarettes were generally associated with dining room furniture. Sometimes cellarettes were small portable pieces of furniture with handles that could be moved from room to room in a house. Another type was a permanent piece of furniture built on a stand with a sliding shelf to hold glasses and a drawer for serving paraphernalia.

A cellarette would sometimes be referred to as "wine cooler" or "butler" during the eighteenth century. The word bouteillier/butler was later standardized as a reference to the staff person exercising custodial responsibility over the bottles contained in a cellarette or wine cellar. Men of wealth had as many as three cellarettes at a time as a status symbol, not necessarily indicating one was a heavy drinker. The cellarette "wine cooler" would be internally lined with some sort of metal so melted ice water would not enter into the wood.