Two Victorian silver-gilt Warwick Vase wine coolers

MAKER'S MARK OF STEPHEN SMITH AND WILLIAM NICHOLSON, LONDON, 1853 AND 1854

細節

Two Victorian silver-gilt Warwick Vase wine coolers
maker's mark of Stephen Smith and William Nicholson, London, 1853 and 1854
Each on square plinth and with spreading foot, the lower part of the body chased with acanthus leaves and applied above with a band of Bacchic masks, thyrsae and lion pelts, with two reeded trailing vine handles and ovolo rim, marked on bodies
10¼in. (26cm.) high
193ozs. (6,007grs.) (2)

拍品專文

The Warwick vase, a colossal marble vase measuring nearly six feet high, dates from the 2nd century A. D. It was found in a fragmentary state at the bottom of a lake at Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, near Rome in 1770. It was acquired by Sir William Hamilton who at the time was Ambassador to Naples. It was restored and Hamilton sold it to his kinsman, the Earl of Warwick, who set it up in the grounds of Warwick Castle. It is now in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow

The vase had been engraved by Piranesi in 1778 and these prints provided the inspiration for a host of versions of the vase in silver and silver-gilt. The monumental form was eminently suitable for use as a wine-cooler, as in the present lot.