The Jerningham Wine Cooler

The Jerningham Wine Cooler

The largest piece of sterling silver commissioned commissioned since the creation of the Jerningham - Kandler cistern, London, 1734 residing in St Petersburg at the Hermitage Museum.

Koopman Rare Art Phone: +44 (0) 207 242 7624 Email: info@koopman.art Composed by Chiara Scotto Pasanisi dei Foscarini & Timo Koopman Edited by Sophie Teer © Koopman Rare Art 2021

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“

Oh how beautiful is youth And quickly does it flee, Be happy if you want to, For tomorrow may not come.

Bacchus here with Ariadne, Burning for each others love, Time plays tricks and slips away, So happily they stay together With these nymphs and other spirits They are happy all the time.

Be happy if you want to, For tomorrow is not certain

„

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The Jerningham Wine Cooler

AN EXTRAORDINARY EARLY 20TH CENTURY WINE CISTERN Unmarked Sterling Standard Early 20th century, circa 1920 Length: 155 cm, 61.02 in.

Width: 92 cm, 36.22 in.

Height: 92 cm, 36.22 in.

Weight: 276.68 kg, 8,900 oz The oval wine cooler, waisted below the rim, with large oval medallions. The bowl rests on four seated panthers, teeth bared, each with one paw on a bunch of grapes.

The panthers wear collars and are tied to the bowl with chains. Heavy S-scroll handles with herms of a faun and a bacchante, both holding bunches of grapes and with vines and around their hips. The upper parts of the scrolls have a profiled edge while the lower curves - forming the bottom or stand of the herms - are decorated with acanthus leaves. Attached to the sides of the bowl are relief bacchic scenes with putti. In the first, putti surround a chariot pulled by panthers in which sit two more putti, one of them the young Bacchus, with a figure of Cupid hovering above; the second shows putti dancing, flanked by a group of putti fighting and others drinking and playing with a panther. All parts of the wine cooler were cast from moulds and then raised and chased where necessary, before being soldered together. Bolts were used to fasten the large parts: the handles to the bowl, the bowl to the panthers, etc.

The medallions are much thicker than the side walls of the bowl itself, since they have to accommodate what is at times very high relief.

This wine cistern is modelled after the George II example made in London, 1734 by Charles Kandler. Its inspiration can be traced to a sketch of the design honouring the wine god Bacchus and was done by the antiquarian and engraver George Vertue (1684-1756) and the wax models for the figures were executed by the Flemish-born English sculptor John Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770). The actual cistern, now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, was the work of the silversmith Charles Frederick Kandler (act. 1720–1770s). When this remarkable piece was finally ready in 1734, Meynell had changed his mind and Jernegan was stuck with the extravagant object for which he failed to find a buyer. Offered as first price in a lottery of 1739, the wine cistern entered the collection of Empress Anne of Russia by the following year.

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As an unmarked piece of silver, this Cistern has been subject to the stringent date testing and metal analysis provided by the Goldsmiths’ Hall. The date testing of silver is calculated identifying the other metals used in the alloy of sterling silver. These include cadmium, lead, bismuth, and gold amongst other metals. The percentages of these other metals were refined as the sterling silver alloy was improved over the centuries to make it easier to work with and as expensive trace elements such as gold were removed.

As visible from the results below, the current cistern dates to the early 1900’s.

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Gerard Jean-Baptiste Scotin, Drawing of a wine cistern made by Charles Kandler, after a design by Henry Jerngan, drawn by George Vertue. Victoria and Albert Museum, E.1594_1948

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The History of The Jerningham Wine Cistern The Jerningham wine cistern was commissioned in 1734 in London by Henry Jernegan (later transcribed as Jerningham), a London goldsmith, banker, and artist of Russell Street, who aimed to create the largest ever silver wine cistern. He worked with the Flemish sculptor John Michael Rysbrack to model the Bacchanalian scenes on the bowl, the crouching panthers beneath and the satyr handles. Although a large workshop of silversmiths worked in a combined effort of the piece, it was the workshop’s leader, Charles Kandler, who hallmarked the piece. It was common practice throughout the XVIII century for architects, silversmiths, chasers, sculptors, and engravers to work together on a project, however it was Kandler, whose hallmark is found on the cistern, he assured that the highest quality was reached for each of these disciplines.

Henry Jernegan allegedly commissioned the cistern on a behalf of a client, Littleton Poyntz Meynell who then refused to pay the bill once Kandler’s work was completed.

Scared by the exaggerate expense, Jernegan petitioned Parliament to agree to a lottery in order to dispose of it. State run lotteries were not uncommon in the early Georgian period and they usually contributed to finance a public project, in this case a new bridge over the Thames at Westminster. Even Queen Caroline became interested in the matter and it was decided to mint a large number of medals to be given away with every ticket sold as an incentive.

The winner, Major William Battine of East Marden, Sussex, appears to have sold the cistern to the regent Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna of Russia in 1738 and was then subsequently acquired, at a much later date, by the Hermitage Museum.

Kandler turned to the most illustrious designers and modellers to work on this majestic project. The designer Hubert Gravelot (1699-1733) worked very close with George Vertue (1684-1756) who allegedly designed the cistern.

Gravelot’s English drawings for metalwork are recognisable because of their restrained and monumental style. Gravelot was a French book illustrator, draughtsman, designer, etcher and painter and he was in England from circa 1732 to 1746.

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Gravelot’s style of draughtsmanship revolutionised English engraving and book illustration, introducing into it a French elegance and delicacy. He ran a drawing school in Covent Garden and was a leading member and instructor, together with G. M. Moser and others, at the St Martin’s Lane Academy. Gravelot’s ornamental rococo style certainly influenced the work of the St Martin’s Lane circle, especially that of Moser. Gravelot’s ‘Drawings for Engravings and all other kinds of Gold and Silver Works’ were mentioned by George Vertue in 1741, proving the profound influence he exercised on the development of decorative arts.

After Kandler, Gravelot and Vertue worked on the wax models and the whole design, the sculptor Michael Rysbrack was asked to work on the figures and the bass relief on the body. The whole process allegedly took around three years from conception to completion and, according to contemporary sources, it was all raised from one piece of silver.

The Jerningham wine cistern was certainly conceived to impress, weighing an incredible 220kg of silver. The elongated bowl rests on four supporters realistically modelled as chained panthers. The body’s surface alternates plain and matt background and presents two framed reserves with scenes of festive bacchic putti.

The handles are fully three dimensional, shaped as a satyr and bacchante, both pictured in the effort of pulling bunches of grapes from the rim of the cistern. The rim of the cooler is decorated with an extremely realistic life size vine, amongst which a careful eye can even spot several insects.

This cistern was the perfect candidate for the ambitious project that the Victoria and Albert Museum started with Elkington & Co in 1857. The Birmingham firm dominated the production of plate by patenting their avantgarde technique of electro plating (or galvanic plating) copper. As the South Kensington Museum’s principal vocation was always to educate the public on the most prominent methods and styles of British manufacture, Elkington’s resources were fully exploited to recreate historic pieces 'increasing the copies of fine specimens ... that not only the consumer may become familiar with the beauties, but both artist and artisan may also be able to compare the same with their own productions.'. Both parties benefited from this project as Elkington affirmed themselves as the leading producer of plate in Victorian England, aided by the prestige of collaborating with such a cultural institution as the V&A. In an effort to locate the most interesting candidates for the ambitious project, in 1880 William Cripps, the author of Old English Plate, visited Russia personally to examine valuable pieces of British silver in the Treasury. Cripps instantly recognised the Jerningham masterpiece and instructed Elkington to produce a copy.

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The most famous copy produced remains the one in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

A second electrotype copy, in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, was donated to the Museum by the financier and patron of the arts Henry G. Marquand who also acquired several Elkington’s historic copies for the Metropolitan Museum to fulfil the same educational mission as the South Kensington institution.

A third plated copy is in the collection of the Queen's Royal Regimental Silver, currently in use for formal banquets.

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Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520-3, oil on canvas (176.5 x 191 cm), The National Gallery, London NG35

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The Present Cistern This example is one of the very few known sterling silver copies that were made.

Dating to the first part of the XX Century, it is an incredibly rare and exciting addition to the market, having not been on public display since its creation.

Although some details have been modified in the present example, its model was replicated in all accuracy, if not in more grandness, since this cistern surpasses its predecessor by over 50 kilograms in the weight.

The original plaster casts from Elkington project must have been employed and then a number of variations have been implemented, presumably to adapt the piece to the taste of the patron.

An elegant, stepped base was added as a ground for the rampant panthers to rest.

The beasts themselves display a much more realistic representation in comparison to their predecessors. In line with the typical XVIII Century representation of wildlife, Kandler’s panthers have a much less ferocious appearance. The other evident variation is the complexity of the grape and vine border around the upper edge of the piece. Although the naturalistic realism has been preserved, the scale of the border has been adjusted, possibly to make the Cistern a more practical object.

Both sides of the body are decorated with scenes from the triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne and putti in a bacchanalian festive procession.

The “Bacchus and Ariadne” theme is one of most popular images in classical art, associated with the celebration of pleasure seeking through life and enjoyment of worldly delights.

Some of the most important artists have worked on this subject, creating endless possibilities of inspiration throughout the centuries for Kandler and his modellers.

The mythological parade was famously depicted by Titian in 1520 for the Duke of Ferrara.

In the year 1600 Annibale Carracci depicted the two triumphant lovers on the ceiling of the Farnese Gallery to celebrate the marriage of a family member of the Cardinal.

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Annibale Carracci, Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, 1595-1605, fresco, Galleria Farnese, Palazzo Farnese, Rome.

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All the elements present in the scene allude to the festive joys of earthly pleasures and abundance. Even the handles, shaped as a male and female figure, are emerging from scrolled cornucopias, another symbol of wealth and fertility.

The Jerningham cistern is certainly a piece created to embody the spirit of convivial life and merriment, a piece that would have witnessed many joyful occasions celebrating life itself, mimicking the verses of the famous patron of the arts and lord of Florence Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449-1492).

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Oh how beautiful is youth And quickly does it flee, Be happy if you want to, For tomorrow may not come.

Bacchus here with Ariadne, Burning for each others love, Time plays tricks and slips away, So happily they stay together With these nymphs and other spirits They are happy all the time.

Be happy if you want to, For tomorrow is not certain

„

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Pictured Left: The Macclesfield suite, Anthony Nelme 1719, The Victoria & Albert Museum, M.27-1998 Pictured Right: William Lukin, 1707, The Hoptoun wine cistern and fountain (Weight: 13 kg, Width: 64cm), The Victoria and Albert Museum LOAN:MET ANON.24:1-1996

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The History of Wine Cisterns The wine cistern was the grandest part of the display plate which would have been on show on the great buffet. Large cisterns as with the current example, would have held water used for the rinsing of glasses and for cooling the glasses prior to them being refilled with wine. In some instances, a wine fountain accompanies the cistern, which would have acted as a reservoir for the water. The glasses would have been rinsed beneath the tap and the water collected in the cistern beneath. Cisterns were also used for the cooling of wine flasks or bottles in water or ice.

In rare instances such as the Macclesfield suite, a fountain and small cistern were accompanied by a larger cistern which would have rested on the floor and was for the cooling of wine.

This magnificent suite was the subject of an article by Philippa Glanville1, once Keeper of Metalwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum as the two cisterns or coolers illustrate a division of use not normally seen.

Another complete cistern and fountain which is interesting to note is that which is on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Hoptoun cistern by William Lukin, London, 1707, one of the greatest of the Huguenot complete wine cistern suites, was part of the collection at Koopman Rare Art in 1998 and was sold to the A. H. Whiteley Family Foundation.

The use of a cistern for dining dates back to the 15th century as illustrated by Dr. N.M. Penzer in his article2, with a woodcut from Michael Wolgmuth, Schatzbehalter oder Schrein der wahren Reichtümer des Heils und ewiger Seligkeit, Nuremberg, 1491.

Samuel Pepys records the purchase of a wine cistern in his diary on 14 March 1667.

Cisterns were often of pewter but also of other materials such as pottery as with this 16th century Italian example in the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Christie's International Magazine, Dining in Splendour, March 1998, p.42 Apollo, The Great Wine-Coolers I, November 1955, p. 3.

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Pictured Top Left: Wine Cistern, Francesco Durantino, 1553, Art Institute of Chicago, 1966.395 Pictured Bottom Left: A Blue and White Large Wine Cooler, attributed to Adrianus Kocx, the owner of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory from 1686 to 1701, Aronson Antiques Amsterdam

Skilfully decorated by the Italian ceramic painter Francesco Durantino, this work typifies the Renaissance interest in both Christian imagery and scenes from pagan antiquity , a combination that is often employed in the decoration of wine associated items.

Examples were also produced in Delftware, such as this beautiful piece in the collection of Aronson Antiques, which dates to circa 1690, attributed to Adrianus Kocx.

In England, the introduction of silver examples appears in the late 1600’s. These early pieces were oval in shape and often on four feet formed as lion paws, as shown in a painting from 1616 of Ladies and Gentlemen Carousing, by Dirk Hals.

The huge quantity of silver used in the manufacture of a silver wine cistern made it an attractive prospect for melting. Changes in fashion and the demands placed on Royal and aristocratic plate collections, for economic reasons or war, has meant no pre-Commonwealth English examples survive. A few extant 16th century plate inventories show that cisterns were an important part of grand plate collections.

The inventory of Queen Elizabeth I's plate conducted in 1574 lists ‘Oone great Sesterne of siluer to serve for a cupbourd poiz VcXXVdim.’ The weight of this cistern was 525 ½ oz. It was also intended to stand on a cupboard of estate or buffet, rather than the floor. Further contemporary accounts record that it was in the care of the Groom Porter whose job it was to organise furnishings for the Royal Lodgings, therefore it must be assumed the cistern was seen as silver furniture rather than plate, which came under the control of the Master of the Jewel House.

Wine cisterns were used by the Jacobean court as shown by Dr. N. M. Penzer in the second of his two articles on wine coolers. He illustrates a painting of the King and Queen of Bohemia dining at Whitehall, by Gerard Houckgeest, 1634, where an oval cistern on four claw feet stands in the foreground. This huge cistern is likely to have been similar to a vast example of some 1,000 oz. granted by Royal Warrant in 1672 to King Charles' mistress Louise Renée de Kéroualle.

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Pictured Top Left: Dirk Hals, Galant Scene, XVII Century, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne Pictured Middle Left: Bartholomeus van Bassen, Palace interior with the King & Queen of Bohemia dining in public 1634. The Royal collection.

Pictured Bottom Left: Bartholomeus van Bassen, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c’1618-1620, with a wine cistern shown in use.

The end of the 17th century saw some of the largest cisterns being commissioned, with the return to prosperity and political stability after the succession of William and Mary.

The collection of Temple Newsham, hosts an example hallmarked by Philip Rollos the Elder and dating 1705, made for Thomas Wentworth, 3rd Baron Raby of Wentworth Castle, Yorkshire.

As Ambassador Extraordinary to Berlin in 1706, Lord Raby was entitled to a very generous allowance of silver plate, to be modelled in his taste at the latest trend, that he could keep at the end of his mandate.

The grand silver pieces that ambassadors were provided with, were an essential component in the etiquette of formal dining in the baroque period when the display of impressive plate reflected the status and importance of the host (or, in the case of ambassadors, the country they represented).

Lord Raby’s cistern was undoubtedly inspired by German examples seen by the dignitary in Berlin on an earlier visit in 1701 and recent research has established that Philip Rollos the Elder had close links with Berlin, and that he was probably of German Lutheran origin.

As the fashion of the baroque courts fuelled the demand for astonishing and substantial pieces of silver plate, households adapted.

A Lamerie example, made for John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, in 1719, currently in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, shows how the early model remained in use well into the Rococo period. The single rim foot, in fact, provides such large items with the stability and grandeur appropriate to their weight.

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Pictured Top Left: The Temple Newsham Cistern, Philip Rollos the Elder, 1705 (Weight: 2597oz, 70 kg; Width: 4ft 3in, 1.29m) Pictured Bottom Left: Paul de Lamerie, Cistern for the First Earl Gower, 1719, (Weight: 44 pounds, 20 Kg; Width: 38 in, 96.5 cm) Minneapolis Institute of Arts 61.56

Although this cistern was hallmarked only in the early years of Lamerie’s career, his marvellous approach to the rococo trend is perfectly visible in the applied elements on the main body and in the shape of the handles. The French Regence style is given a newly found dimension and strength by the sculptural elements that the immigrant makers were injecting into English silver.

Further examples of large wine cisterns are documented in England in the same period, all marked by some of the most prominent makers of the 18th century.

These examples all display a similar approach to the decoration of the body, with applied strapwork and sculptural elements, such as the one made for the Dule of Buccleuch by Francis Nelme in 1731 or the one for the Marquess of Exeter, marked by Thomas Farrer in 17283.

Peter Archambo assayed another large cistern the following year (1729), fulfilling an order for the Foley- Grey family of Dunham Massey4. Although of more plain baroque design, the impressive height and size of this piece is emphasised by the lions’ paws mahogany stand made to complete it.

Such pieces fulfilled different uses, from cooling flagons of wine to rinsing plates and glasses (in lieu of a Monteith) in use during formal entertainment but in this particular case, the 1729 cistern was conceived to complete a pre-existent set of a Fountain with cover and a smaller cistern “to wash glasses in” as quoted from the House’s inventory5.

In the year 1762 Frances Hastings, the 10th Earl of Huntingdon, was appointed Bearer of the Third Sword to King George III. The role was greeted with the order of several important pieces of plate, in order to equip the household with the necessary items for formal entertainment. The largest item was the Huntingdon wine cistern6, hallmarked by Abraham Portal.

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Collection of Burghley House, SIL04997.

Collection of Dunham Massey, DUN.S282 5 Collection of Dunham Massey, DUN.S.310.

6 Dallas Museum of Art, 2003.41.A-B 4

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Pictured Top left: Abraham Portal, The Huntingdon wine cistern, Weight: 73 lb, 33 Kg; Width: 39 in, 99 cm), Dallas Museum of Art, 2003.41.A-B Pictured Bottom Left: Robert Frederick Fox, A Large Silver-Gilt Wine Cistern, London, 1912, Koopman Rare Art

This particular cistern differs in style from the previous ones and was probably modelled following a design inspired by the Jerningham example, which set an extraordinary standard due to its unprecedented imposing sculptural decoration. The quadruped base and the Vitruvian scroll border are very much in line with the rising Adamesque phase of the neoclassical style.

Another notable later example is the one hallmarked by Thomas Heming in 1770. The so called ‘Speaker’s Cistern’7 has an interesting curved body that mimics the volutes of the rows of vines that adorn its handles, body, and feet but the theatrical aspect of the rococo and early neoclassical is here abandoned in order to follow a more traditional and utilitarian shape.

As the baroque dining etiquette slowly started to decline in fashion, individual wine coolers started to appear on the table, as a more practical and decorative solution. Towards the beginning of the XVIII century, the need for individual wine coolers was felt for those rare occasions when the master of the house was dining alone. This custom and fashion slowly surpassed the need for the buffet display to be constantly on show and as formal entertainment became more focused around the dining table itself. However, that said, individual special commissions still came about as one can see with another piece currently in the collection of Koopman Rare Art, a wonderful wine cistern produced for the Duke of Argyle in 1912 by Robert Frederick Fox. We hope you have enjoyed this brief insight into the fascinating world of household silver as cisterns can certainly be considered a silver furniture. We invite you to join us with your thoughts and questions and hope this paper has inspired you with the delights of the decorative arts relating to the history of silver.

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Belton House, National Trust NT 436561

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Koopman Rare Art Phone: +44 (0) 207 242 7624 Email: info@koopman.art

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