Gilt silver wine cooler with branch handles and family crest, side view

Gilt silver wine cooler with branch handles and family crest

Detail of gilt silver wine cooler with branch handles and family crest

Wine Cooler (one of two)

Benjamin and James Smith (British, act. 1809–1812)

Date1811–12

MediumSilver gilt

DimensionsH.: 10 1/4 in. (26 cm), diam.: 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm)

Credit LineHenry Clay Frick Bequest

Accession number1915.7.07

Commentary

This cooler and its pair, 1915.7.08, are decorated with ornaments that allude to wine: a band of spiraling vine tendrils, grapes, and masks of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry. In ancient mythology, Bacchus could take the shape of a snake, formed here in the coolers’ handles. These wine coolers are engraved with the arms and crest of Joseph Burn—formerly Joseph Teasdale, of Lincoln’s Inn Square, Middlesex, and of Orton in the County of Westmoreland—and of his wife, Eulalia Vila, from Barcelona, Spain.

Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.

Collection History

Frick, 1915.

Source: Enamels, Rugs and Silver in The Frick Collection. Volume VIII. New York: The Frick Collection, 1977.

Not On View

Subjects: Animals Silver