Glass Cooler (Seau à verre ordinaire) (1759–60): Art, History and Details

Glass Cooler (Seau à verre ordinaire) (1759–60) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In 18th-century France, wine was traditionally drunk chilled. This object would have held crushed ice or ice water to chill small bottles or glasses. Shifts in the strict dining protocol of 18th-century France under Louis XV meant that bottle coolers would have been placed within reach of the diners, rather than their traditional placement on the side board.

Object facts

• Title: Glass Cooler (Seau à verre ordinaire)
• Date: 1759–60
• Creator attribution: Sèvres Porcelain Factory (French, est. 1756)
• Culture: France, Sèvres
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: soft-paste porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.8 cm (4 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1972.180

A detail from the museum

A bottle cooler of this design was first purchased in 1752 by Madame de Pompadour, great patron of the Sèvres porcelain factory and official mistress of French King Louis XV.

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Everett R. Castle

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.