A fine pair of George III mahogany wine cisterns and pedestals

50 A fine pair of George III mahogany wine cisterns and pedestals

Height overall: 67in (170cm) Pedestals: 17¼in square (44cm square)

These cisterns are in the form of a fluted vase on a rectangular pedestal. The lead-lined vases have brass handles, removable lids with pineapple finials and taps. The left- and right-handed pedestals have cupboard doors enclosing slatted shelves for warming plates in one and a lead-lined slops drawer, a tambour fronted shelf and a cellaret in the other. They are decorated with crossbanding on the doors. English, circa 1800. Provenance: Damick House, Scotland Susan Stuart, ‘Gillow of Lancaster and London’, (ibid) Vol. 1, pp. 308-315 illustrates many pedestal urns including the drawings for Workington Hall, Cumbria, dated 1788. Plates 348 and 349 (above) show pedestals with a similar arrangement of shelves and drawers. Thomas Sheraton explained the functions of dining room pedestals in his ‘Drawing Book’ of 1793: ‘In spacious dining rooms the sideboards are often made without drawers of any sort, having simply a rail, a little ornament and a pedestal with vases at each end which produces a grand effect. One pedestal is used as a plate warmer and is lined with tin, the other as a pot cupboard, and sometimes it contains a cellaret for wine. They are sometimes made of copper japanned, but generally of mahogany.’