A short history of the Tennessee sugar chest

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2003 by Robert Hicks, Benjamin Hubbard Caldwell, Jr.

Carving, inlay, and veneer were not the only ways to decorate a sugar chest. Painted decoration adorns the cherry chests shown in Plates I and XII, although in both cases it is probably not original. The latter, with its cut-corner painted border on the facade, was probably decorated relatively early in its history. By contrast, the oak-graining on the chest in Plate I was more than likely done sometime at the beginning of the twentieth century, probably by a homeowner using one of the many mail-order graining kits available at the time. Evidence for this theory was provided at an auction some twenty years ago when this sugar chest was sold along with an early blanket chest and a twentieth-century icebox, all of which bore the same grain painting.

Although somewhat rarer, we identified as sugar chests both boxes on legs, without a drawer, such as the walnut example in Plate XIII, and the stand in Plate VII. The latter has a strong family history of always being referred to as a sugar stand.

Among the more confusing forms are two related boxes (see Pl. X) found within a few years of each other and attributed to an unknown shop in Davidson County, Tennessee. The one shown here was found in Humphreys County and the other in Nashville. Both were called cellarets because of their clear exterior relationship to cellarets from North Carolina. However, unlike cellarets, the interiors are not divided into multiple compartments to hold bottles. One has no interior dividers, and the one shown in Plate X is divided into two compartments by a board running front to back. Most probably this is yet another variation on the sugar chest for which the maker borrowed the familiar North Carolina cellaret form.

By contrast, there can be no doubt of the cabinetmaker's intent regarding the purpose of the combination sugar chest and cellaret shown in Plates II and III that is still in the possession of descendants of the original owner. It is among the rarest forms to have been found in Tennessee.

When we began our research for the exhibition Art of Tennessee we had not thought that we could add much to the often-told story of the Tennessee sugar chest. Yet sideboard sugar chests that appear to be the form listed in Houston's inventory kept showing up in collections throughout Middle Tennessee, and before we had finished, we were discovering Tennessee sugar chests, in one variation or another, almost everywhere--as bedside tables, small blanket boxes, and even as a kindling box near a fireplace.

It is our hope that this article, the exhibition, and its accompanying catalogue will encourage others to rethink the full spectrum of Tennessee's visual arts, as we rethought the lowly sugar chest.

An exhibition entitled Art of Tennessee will be on view at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville from September 13 until January 18, 2004. A catalogue of the same title accompanies the show. The curators are Robert Hicks and Benjamin Hubbard Caldwell Jr.

We would like to acknowledge our indebtedness to the following sources for their contribution to this article: Mary Ralls Dockstader, "Sugar Chests," The Magazine ANTIQUES, April 1934; Derita Coleman Williams and Nathan Harsh, The Art and Mystery of Tennessee Furniture and Its Makers through 1850, ed. C. Tracey Parks; the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the Atlanta Historical Society, Georgia; and Rick Warwick for his detailed survey of the material culture of nineteenth-century Williams County, Tennessee.