Object Description
A Regency mahogany wine cooler attributed to Gillows, of oval cylindrical form, the hinged top with radiating gadroons centred on an out-turned finial opening to reveal compartments for bottles, the sides with four baluster columns applied to the outside and terminating in turned legs and brass castors, the single brass ring handle ensuite with the finial. English, circa 1815.
Restoration: the interior re-surfaced in zinc.
The earliest design for an oval lead-lined cistern features in the Gillows 1787 Estimate Sketch Book of 1787 (see: L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 178). A similar wine-cooler was designed by James Wyatt (a close associate of the Gillows family) in the 1790s for Henham Hall, Suffolk, seat of the Earls of Stradbroke.. Related examples are illustrated in R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, ‘The Dictionary of English Furniture’, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. I, p. 223, fig. 9; and P. Macquoid, ‘The Age of Satinwood’, London, 1908, fig. 66.