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Lot Essay
These magnificent golden-ringed sideboard water-buckets or 'seaux' are designed in the George II French/Roman manner. Their tripod-stands, richly carved in the 'Picturesque' manner, have 'antique' trussed legs terminating in Ionic acanthus-wrapped volutes, and display shell-badges clasped by Roman acanthus in celebration of the Arcadian water-born deity Venus. Their ornament relates to that of parlour chair patterns, 'all in a new taste', issued in William de la Cour's, First Book of Ornament, 1741. They can perhaps be attributed to the fashionable cabinet-maker of George IIs reign William Hallett (d. 1781) who is credited with the manufacture in the mid-l740s of the dining-chairs for St. Giles's House, Dorset (sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 8 July 1999, lot 40).
A related wine-cooler was offered in the Messer Collection, in these Rooms, 5 December 1991, lot 107 and another related one, probably by William Hallett, is in a private English collection, where it has almost certainly remained since it was made in the 18th Century.
A related wine-cooler was offered in the Messer Collection, in these Rooms, 5 December 1991, lot 107 and another related one, probably by William Hallett, is in a private English collection, where it has almost certainly remained since it was made in the 18th Century.