In the middle of the nineteenth century, a new form of parlor furniture, called the étagère by the French and the whatnot by the English, was introduced into fashionable American households. Characteristically, the form includes many small shelves, often backed with mirror glass, designed for the display of “articles of virtu—bouquets of flowers, scientific curiosities, or whatever,” or, in other words, the eclectic array of knickknacks, intended to reflect the character and taste of the owner, that so typify Victorian interiors. The Bayou Bend example combines the concept of a parlor cabinet below with the étagère shelves above. The small, semicircular shelves above are supported by laminated floral scrolls that relate to documented work by Belter’s shop, as does the floral and fruit carving of the arched crest. 

Technical notes: Rosewood, rosewood veneer; marble, mirror glass, ash. 

Related examples: An identical example was sold at auction in New Orleans (Antiques and The Arts Weekly, December 19, 1980, p. 85); another that is identical except for the crest, which is carved with a bust, sold at auction in New Jersey (Antiques and The Arts Weekly, June 8, 1990, p. 29). 

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.