CIRCA 1780

The quality of the craftsmanship, and the known family patronage of Mayhew & Ince suggests this fine octagonal wine-cooler may possibly be the one cited in the firm’s bills for work commissioned by Sir Thomas Edwardes, 6th Baronet, at 17 Edward Street, London. The ‘Estimate’ dated 22 August 1774 lists, ‘A Mahogany Wine Cellar lin’d with Lead to lock £3.3s’ in the ‘Dining Parlor’, and the ‘Account’ more fully describes this furniture as, ‘A Mahogany Wine Cistern, with folding top, the inside lined with Lead and partition’d for Bottles, and brass lock Complete’. Although plainer than other models executed by the firm this may be explained by the relatively modest antecedents of the client, Sir Thomas, the date of the commission and the cost of the Edwardes’ cistern in relation to other Mayhew & Ince commissions. ‘A Large Mahogany Cistern lined with Copper, carved and Ornamented with Leaf & tongue; on a frame carved with pattera’s therm feet pannell’d & on Castors’ listed in the ‘Account’ for James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon, dated October 1785, cost £8.17s, significantly more than the Edwardes’ cistern at £3 3s (H. Roberts, ‘Unequall’d Elegance: Mayhew and Ince’s Furniture for James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon’, Furniture History, vol. 45, 2009, p. 134).