Lot Essay
A similar pair sold The Collection of Mr and Mrs Raymond Slater, Sotheby's, London, 7 April 1995, lot 103
Details
a pair of gilt-brass-mounted mahogany coolers, late 19th century
in the Adam style, each hexagonal moulded lid with a circular gadrooned boss and pineapple finial, the conforming bodies with a guilloche-band and oval paterae handles, the moulded legs with ram's head masks and hoof feet, each enclosing later tin liners
18½in. (47cm.) wide, 29½in. (75cm.) high (2)
in the Adam style, each hexagonal moulded lid with a circular gadrooned boss and pineapple finial, the conforming bodies with a guilloche-band and oval paterae handles, the moulded legs with ram's head masks and hoof feet, each enclosing later tin liners
18½in. (47cm.) wide, 29½in. (75cm.) high (2)
Further details
The form of these wine coolers derives from the Neo-classical furniture of the second half of the eighteenth century, especially the work of Robert Adam, typifying the 'Adam Revival' style of the later nineteenth century. A wine cooler of identical design, dated circa 1895, is illustrated in Frances Collard, Regency Furniture, 1985, p.245, and another example, apparently of similar date, is illustrated in Margaret Jourdain, Regency Furniture, 1934, p.163. Both these and the offered lot would appear to be based on a design published by Conrath in The Cabinet Maker & Art Furnisher, January 1895. The use of ram-masks and hoof-feet is especially appropriate in this context, since in Classical iconography the ram is associated with Bacchus and hence with wine and feasting