Lot Essay
This service, which is unusual in that each piece is enamelled with a different central scene, was known as 'Palace ware' in the early 20th Century and more recently as 'Rockefeller' pattern after Governor Nelson Rockefeller who possessed a particularly fine and complete service. Andrew John Drummond, a General in the East India Company, also commissioned a service of this pattern for his family. Cf. J. A. Lloyd Hyde, op.cit., pp. 56 and 57, pl.IX, no.16 where a pair of very similar ice-pails from the collection of the late John D. Rockefeller Jr. is illustrated; J. G. Phillips, op.cit., p.175, pl.80, for an armorial dish with similar borders dated to 1785-1800; M. Beurdeley, op.cit., p.163, cat.64; D. S. Howard, op.cit., pp. 138 and 139, no. 147; and D. S. Howard and J. Ayers, op.cit., pp. 188 and 189.
Ice pails were used to keep food cold; the pails were filled with ice, food such as cream or stewed fruit was placed in the liner, and further ice placed in the covers which have tall cylindrical sides for the purpose. Ice pails, or glacières, of this shape, were made in porcelain, glass and pottery in the 18th Century. The first mention of a porcelain ice pail is to be found in a 1758 inventory at the Archives de la Manufacture de Sèvres. See Objets Civils Domestiques, French Ministry of Culture, published Paris 1984, pp. 110 and 111, for a discussion on glacières.
Ice pails were used to keep food cold; the pails were filled with ice, food such as cream or stewed fruit was placed in the liner, and further ice placed in the covers which have tall cylindrical sides for the purpose. Ice pails, or glacières, of this shape, were made in porcelain, glass and pottery in the 18th Century. The first mention of a porcelain ice pail is to be found in a 1758 inventory at the Archives de la Manufacture de Sèvres. See Objets Civils Domestiques, French Ministry of Culture, published Paris 1984, pp. 110 and 111, for a discussion on glacières.