The Wolverton Park Ice Pails/Wine Coolers. An important pair of George III Ice Pails/Wine Coolers made in London in 1798 by Robert Sharp.

These important pieces are modelled in an unusual urn form and stand on a circular pedestal foot decorated with two bands of reed and tie decoration.  The main body displays a lower wide band of lobing, below a frieze of harebell motifs.  The rim is also decorated with the same reed and tie designs as seen on the foot, above a band of raised fruiting vines and grapes, indicating their use.  The unusual handles are decorated with leaf capping and acanthus mouldings and display circular drop ring handles.  The plain section is engraved on both sides with a contemporary Armorial, surrounded by a very finely detailed cartouche of drapery mantling.  The removable collars are plain in design and are each engraved with a contemporary Crest.  Each has a removable central bottle cylinder which is also engraved with the family Crest, as seen on the collars.  These pieces are in quite exceptional, crisp, condition and are very well marked on each of the parts.  They also weigh a very good 144oz, the pair.  The majority of ice urns/pails are 19^th century in date, therefore to find a pair from the 18^th century is very desirable indeed, as they were not made in great quantity.

Height: 9.75 inches.

Diameter at the rim: 7.85 inches.

Total weight: 144oz, the pair.

ROBERT SHARP – THE MAKER

Robert Sharp was an exceptional silversmith, either on his own or in partnership with Daniel Smith.  He was apprenticed to Gawen Nash and entered his first mark in 1757.  He had a long working life and was working from premises at 14, Bartholomew Close when these pieces were commissioned.  He supplied the Royal Retailers of Jeffreys, Jones & Gilbert and it is almost certain that he helped supply the Prince of Wales, later King George IV, with silver when he was furnishing his Carlton House residence on The Mall in London.

PROVENANCE

These urns were made to commemorate the occasion of the marriage of Sir Peter Pole, 2^nd Baronet & Anna Guerherlmina Buller in 1798.  Their home was Wolverton Park in Hampshire.  Sir Peter was a London Banker and Member of Parliament for Yarmouth. Pole’s bank, Pole and Company, was “among the most considerable in London”.  He retired in 1826 and he sold Wolverton Park to the Duke of Wellington in 1837.  He inherited Gloucestershire estates from his brother in 1844.  At the time of his death, in 1850, he had landed estates in Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Kent.  His son, Peter succeeded as the 3^rd Baronet.