•D2527. Blue and White Wine Cooler

Delft, circa 1690

Marked AK in blue for Adrianus Kocx, owner of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory from 1686 to 1701

The bombé body flanked by two mask-handles and painted all-over in the chinoiserie-style with peacocks and birds in a flower-garden, the lower body molded with gadroons, the deeply lobed rim with alternating panels of flowers and birds, the interior painted with a lush bouquet incorporating a tulip and lily, a butterfly fluttering above, the socle with an elaborate floral garland all raised on four claw-and-ball feet.

DIMENSIONS
Width: 36.3 cm. (14.3 in.)

PROVENANCE
The Peter Van Slyke Collection, U.S.A.;
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, Amsterdam, 20
November 2012, lot 37

NOTE
The first appearance of wine coolers in 1683 is described by Oxford diarist Anthony à Wood (1632-1695), who wrote: “This year in the summer time came up a vessel or bason notched at the brims to let drinking glasses hang there by the foot so that the body or drinking place might hang in the water to coole them. Such a bason was called a ‘Monteigh’ from a fantastical Scot called ‘Monsieur Monteigh,’ who at that time or a little before wore the bottome of his cloake or coate so notched UUUU.” The earliest surviving monteiths date from 1684, a year after Wood’s description. This new form became popular in the late seventeenth century, and examples in silver, base metals, glass, pottery, and porcelain continued to be produced throughout the eighteenth century.

SIMILAR EXAMPLES
A related pair of wine coolers is illustrated in Aronson 2019, p. 47. Another example is in Aronson 2004, pp. 78–79, no. 92. A slightly smaller wine cooler of this form, but marked LVE for Lambertus van Eenhoorn, the owner of De Metaale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory from 1691 until 1721, or his widow Margaretha Teckmann from 1721 to 1724, is depicted in Lunsing Scheurleer, 1984, p. 209, no 78.