ALICE COONEY FRELINGHUYSEN: Étagères consist of a table surmounted by open shelves, or étages. The form of étagère sideboards was invented in France in the 1840s. Elaborate pieces such as this one gained popularity in America by the early 1850s to display curiosities and objets d’art, symbols of travel or good taste. Conceived for use in dining rooms, the sideboard, sometimes called “the altar of gastronomy,” became a domestic shrine to prosperity and good living—and one of the most important pieces of furniture in the American home. This extremely heavy piece is solidly constructed of American black walnut. Naturalism is key to the ornament. Carving is the hallmark of fine cabinetmaking in the 1850s. The deeply carved realistic images are sculpted with extraordinary skill. At the top of the crest, a three-dimensional stag’s head is flanked by two menacing dogs. Look at the four doors on the base, with exquisitely carved, high relief depictions of game animals, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and berries. The imagery evokes the plentiful bounties of the hunt and the untamed natural world. The sideboard was made by Alexander Roux, one of the leading New York cabinetmakers of his day. Roux was a French emigré who worked in New York from 1836 until his death fifty years later.