Wine cooler
manner of Thomas Chippendale (fl. 1766 - 1771 when operating without a business partner)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1770
Materials
Mahogany, satinwood, ebony, beech, copper, lead, japanning, leather, brass,
Measurements
55 x 62 x 40 cm
Place of origin
St. Martin's Lane
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 871342
Summary
A mahogany and satinwood-veneered wine cooler or cistern, English, circa 1770. In the manner of Thomas Chippendale (1718 - 1779). Of oval form, and decorated throughout with ebony banding. Topped by a moulded and crossbanded cover fitted with a reeded, turned and ebonized finial, and enclosing a copper liner. The underside of the liner japanned with brown flecked with white, and fitted with a brass tap and spigot. The cellaret's body veneered in mahogany and crossbanded, and with panels of satinwood veneer within ebony lines. Raised on turned, tapering and fluted legs with a band of beading to the top and above the swelling, stiff leaf-carved feet, fitted with sunken brass and leather castors.
Full description
An unusual design, and plainer but comparable to a cellaret made by Chippendale for Harewood House, circa 1771. This wine cooler's legs, with beaded collars edging a tapering and fluted shaft above a swelling foot, compare to the legs on chairs made by Chippendale in the 1770s (see Gilbert 1978, Vol. II, pp. 80 and 96 - 115). It is possible that this wine cooler was made for the first dining room at Saltram, designed by Adam in 1768 - 1770, which was originally in the room now used as a Library. In 1780, the two rooms were swapped over to bring the Dining Room within range of the new kitchen at the north-east corner of the house, and was furnished with a sideboard table, urns and pedestals designed by Adam, all of which have a painted finish. This wine cooler, therefore, being veneered, was probably not made to match them. It sits more comfortably with the other mahogany dining room furniture at Saltram. The stiff leaves and beads to the legs are very similar to those to the mahogany serving table with a fluted frieze [NT 871285], and to the long set of fifteen mahogany dining chairs, also of very good quality [NT 871359.1 - .15].
Provenance
Date of acquisition not recorded; but at Saltram by 1962 and part of the endowment given to the National Trust by Montagu Brownlow Parker (1878-1962), 5th Earl of Morley.
Credit line
(Megan Wheeler, 2017)
Makers and roles
manner of Thomas Chippendale (fl. 1766 - 1771 when operating without a business partner), cabinetmaker
References
Gilbert (1978): Christopher Gilbert, The Life & Work of Thomas Chippendale (1978), 2 volumes., Vol. II, Figure 125