PAIR GEORGE IV MELON FORM OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE WINE COOLERS

England, c1820-30, crested for Earl of Leicester

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

Of quite heavy weight, each ovoid melon-lobed body raised on a quatrefoil lobed foliate cast and chased base, and

sided by two up-curving stem form handles issuing from acanthus leaves, below a straight neck crested on each side; 

the removable  collar with cast floral and foliate rim above a tinned interior with a separate liner which is silvered on

the interior and set on a raised ring; the crest, an ostrich  on a chapeau, in mouth a horseshoe

(Earl of Leicester - dating is contemporary with Thomas William Coke - see below)

 

Condition: Excellent, with several areas of expected light bleed at the high points of the vertical ribbing; several minor

silver reinforcements to ribbing at the seam joins

 

10.5" High x 10.5" Wide over Handles

 

 SOLD

 

#5791

 

Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (6 May 1754 – 30 June 1842) became famous for his advanced

methods of animal husbandry used in improving his estate at Holkham in Norfolk. As a result, Coke of Norfolk is seen

as one of the instigators of the British Agricultural Revolution.

 

Thomas Coke's efforts to improve the Holkham Hall estate became a marathon project which began in 1776 and

lasted until his death in 1842. People interested in farming were said to flock to annual three-day gatherings at

Holkham at sheep-shearing time – the so-called Holkham Clippings – from all over Britain and from overseas.

Coke's Clippings were the fore-runners of today's agricultural shows. He is particularly credited with improvements to

 animal breeding and husbandry relating to cattle, sheep and pigs.

  

For most of his life, he was happy to remain plain Mr Coke: it is said that he had been offered a peerage seven times by 

six different Prime Ministers - sometimes by Whigs as a reward and at others by Tories as a bribe. Often celebrated by the title

Coke of Norfolk, Coke was eventually ennobled by Queen Victoria in 1837, accepting a new Earldom of Leicester so

that the sons of his second marriage might inherit his title, and was created Viscount Coke and Earl of Leicester,

of Holkham in the County of Norfolk.

  

Lord Leicester died at Longford Hall, Derbyshire.

  

(Wikipedia)

  

 See http://www.holkham.co.uk/