The decorative ormolu handles, in the form of bacchic ring-bearing lion-masks, correspond to a pattern that was possibly invented by the court cabinet-maker Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) and feature on the cistern with satyr-headed lion feet at Althorp, Northamptonshire, which he is thought to have supplied in about 1730 (R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1977, p. 639). The pattern was also used by Thomas Chippendale, on coolers for Cannon Hall and Dumfries House (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, pp.78-9, figs. 120-124).
Lion-mask handles of this pattern are on a pair of coolers from Port Eliot, Cornwall, sold by the St. Germans 1962 Settlement, in these Rooms, 19 November 1992, lot 96.