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Lot Essay
The wine cooler plinths display the arms of Anson quartering Adams, Sambrooke and Carrier impaling Coke, for Thomas, 1st Viscount Anson (1767-1818) and his wife Anne Margaret (d. 1843), second daughter of Thomas Coke of Holkham Hall, Norfolk, later 1st Earl of Leicester, whom he married in 1794. Viscount Anson’s principal seat was Shugborough in Staffordshire.
The pair formed part of a larger set of six listed at Shugborough in 1918. Four of these were sold by The 4th Earl of Lichfield, removed from Shugborough, at Christie, Manson & Woods, 27 November 1941, lot 124 (as ‘Empire ice pails…probably by Thomiere [sic]’) to ‘Staal’ for a substantial £231. All six had all left the collection by 1958 based on their appearance on a list of items extracted from the 1918 inventory, ‘which are found to have been sold prior to December 1958 or which have been donated or stolen’.
The late 17th century mansion of Shugborough was aggrandized and enlarged in the 1740s for Admiral George Anson. George’s brother Thomas, MP for Lichfield, inherited the seat allowing him to realize his passion for classicism. A founding member of the Dilettanti Society, Thomas socialized with forward thinking luminaries including Matthew Boulton and Josiah Wedgwood. He engaged the architect Samuel Wyatt to transform the house, while forming a collection of ancient sculpture, paintings, books and objects. Based on the engraved arms, the wine coolers would have been acquired after his creation as Viscount Anson and Baron Soberton in 1806. This was the time where the Prince of Wales was expected to visit and the villa's dining-room was transformed into an Athenian banqueting saloon with marble column-lined walls and bronze-enriched marble chimneypieces executed by Charles Rossi (d.1839), 'sculptor' to the Prince of Wales (J. Martin Robinson, Shugborough, London, 1989, p.39).
Lord Anson’s son, the 2nd Viscount, was created 1st Earl of Lichfield in 1831. Sadly, his extravagant life including lavish entertainment at Shugborough and a weakness for gambling lead to his financial ruin. The contents of the house were put up for auction by George Robins in a two-week sale, 1-12 August 1842, in which many of the furnishings were sold. The coolers do not appear in two Shugborough inventories at this time (December 1841 and 12 February 1842) (D1798/H.M. Anson/44). This suggests the possibility that they had been relocated to another house or had been part of the sell-off to be later reclaimed by the 2nd Earl (d. 1892) in his endeavor to return the contents to the mansion. They were certainly back at the house by 1918 when they appear in the inventory (see Literature above).
The wine coolers are designed in the French ‘antique’ taste promoted by the Prince of Wales and makers such as Henri Auguste and Jean-Jacques Boileau. Boileau, who was employed by Henry Holland in the decoration of Carlton House, also supplied designs for Royal Goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell which were both classical and Egyptian in inspiration as seen in a collection of designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum (M. Snodin, 'J. J. Boileau: A Forgotten Designer of Silver', The Connoisseur, June 1978, pp. 124-33). One Boileau design was clearly the basis for similar wine coolers that may have been commissioned by Admiral Nelson and sold by descent at Christie’s in 1895. Another single example of the Nelson pattern was sold from the Collection of Mrs. Sydell Ballon and the estate of Frederick Ballon, Christie’s, New York, 17 October 2003, lot 301 ($65,725).
The pair formed part of a larger set of six listed at Shugborough in 1918. Four of these were sold by The 4th Earl of Lichfield, removed from Shugborough, at Christie, Manson & Woods, 27 November 1941, lot 124 (as ‘Empire ice pails…probably by Thomiere [sic]’) to ‘Staal’ for a substantial £231. All six had all left the collection by 1958 based on their appearance on a list of items extracted from the 1918 inventory, ‘which are found to have been sold prior to December 1958 or which have been donated or stolen’.
The late 17th century mansion of Shugborough was aggrandized and enlarged in the 1740s for Admiral George Anson. George’s brother Thomas, MP for Lichfield, inherited the seat allowing him to realize his passion for classicism. A founding member of the Dilettanti Society, Thomas socialized with forward thinking luminaries including Matthew Boulton and Josiah Wedgwood. He engaged the architect Samuel Wyatt to transform the house, while forming a collection of ancient sculpture, paintings, books and objects. Based on the engraved arms, the wine coolers would have been acquired after his creation as Viscount Anson and Baron Soberton in 1806. This was the time where the Prince of Wales was expected to visit and the villa's dining-room was transformed into an Athenian banqueting saloon with marble column-lined walls and bronze-enriched marble chimneypieces executed by Charles Rossi (d.1839), 'sculptor' to the Prince of Wales (J. Martin Robinson, Shugborough, London, 1989, p.39).
Lord Anson’s son, the 2nd Viscount, was created 1st Earl of Lichfield in 1831. Sadly, his extravagant life including lavish entertainment at Shugborough and a weakness for gambling lead to his financial ruin. The contents of the house were put up for auction by George Robins in a two-week sale, 1-12 August 1842, in which many of the furnishings were sold. The coolers do not appear in two Shugborough inventories at this time (December 1841 and 12 February 1842) (D1798/H.M. Anson/44). This suggests the possibility that they had been relocated to another house or had been part of the sell-off to be later reclaimed by the 2nd Earl (d. 1892) in his endeavor to return the contents to the mansion. They were certainly back at the house by 1918 when they appear in the inventory (see Literature above).
The wine coolers are designed in the French ‘antique’ taste promoted by the Prince of Wales and makers such as Henri Auguste and Jean-Jacques Boileau. Boileau, who was employed by Henry Holland in the decoration of Carlton House, also supplied designs for Royal Goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell which were both classical and Egyptian in inspiration as seen in a collection of designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum (M. Snodin, 'J. J. Boileau: A Forgotten Designer of Silver', The Connoisseur, June 1978, pp. 124-33). One Boileau design was clearly the basis for similar wine coolers that may have been commissioned by Admiral Nelson and sold by descent at Christie’s in 1895. Another single example of the Nelson pattern was sold from the Collection of Mrs. Sydell Ballon and the estate of Frederick Ballon, Christie’s, New York, 17 October 2003, lot 301 ($65,725).