The brass handles of bacchic ring-bearing lion-masks correspond to a pattern possibly invented by Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) and feature on the cistern he is thought to have supplied to Althorp, Northamptonshire, in about 1730 (R. Edwards, Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1977, p. 639). They also relate to the handles which decorate a pair of brass-bound oval wine-coolers that were probably supplied to James Eliot (d. 1742) following the building of the dining-room at Port Eliot, Cornwall and sold by the St. Germans 1962 Settlement, in these Rooms, 19 November 1992, lot 96. Thomas Chippendale supplied a pair of wine-coolers to Dumfries House, Ayrshire, in 1759 and 1763 with the same form of handles (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, vol. II, London, 1978, figs. 121, 122).

A single wine-cooler with this model of handles was sold in these Rooms, 23 April 1998, lot 82. A further example was sold from the H.J. Joel Collection, in these Rooms, 17 April 1980, lot 72.