A FINE PAIR OF GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT WINE COOLERS

MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1827

细节

A FINE PAIR OF GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT WINE COOLERS
MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1827
Each modeled as a volute krater, on a square base, with an applied frieze, one depicting Bacchus and Ariadne with dancing bacchantes and attendants, above satyr masks and vines, the other with Ceres in a serpent-drawn chariot with attendants bearing fruits of the harvest, above horned and bearded masks with wheat swags, each on a finely matted ground, the handles chased with laurel and paterae, below swans' heads, egg-and-dart and beaded rims, with detachable rims and liners, the base engraved Published as the Act directs by Storr & Mortimer 156 New Bond Street London, numbered 4 and 5 respectively, each marked on body, collar, and liner
12 5/8 in. (32.1 cm.) high; 243 oz. (7,557 gr.) (2)

来源

The Estate of Nelson A. Rockefeller, sold
Sotheby's, New York, 16 April 2005, lot 240

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拍品专文

The Triumph of Bacchus frieze on this pair of wine coolers is derived from a late 2nd-century Roman sarcophagus in the Vatican Museum, engravings of which were published by E. Q. Visconti in Museo Pio-Clementio, between 1782 and 1802 (see D. Udy, "Piranesi's 'Vasi,' the English Silversmith and his Patrons," Burlington Magazine, December 1978, pp. 828-29).

Looking to antiquity for inspiration, designers including John Flaxman used engravings of Roman archaeological discoveries published by Piranesi, Visconti and others. It is known, for example, that the Storr workshop owned a number of Piranesi's engravings, and it seems almost certain that the workshop, or the firm's retailer Rundell's, also had copies of Visconti's work.

Other wine coolers in this style include a pair in white silver in the Jerome and Rita Gans Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and a single example at the Victoria and Albert Museum (see Joseph Bliss, The Gerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver on Loan to The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, n.d., pp. 188-190)