Wine cooler

Robert Adam (1728 - 1792)

Kenwood House

1773

This wine cooler was part of a suite of Adam's furniture designed for the dining room at Kenwood and illustrated in Adam's influential Works in Architecture (1774). The suite comprises a sidetable, flanking pedestals, knife urns, an arrangement of table ornaments, and the wine cooler. The dining room suite was dispersed with the rest of the furniture in the early 20th century, when the contents of Kenwood were sold. Some of these pieces have since been traced and returned to Kenwood; they include the sidetable, the pedestals and now, the wine cooler which has also been returned to its original setting. The wine cooler incorporates same of Adam's most characteristic decorative motifs such as delicate paterae and acanthus decoration with rams' heads which are repeated throughout the suite. Since relatively few suites of this quality remain in their original settings, the wine cooler is an important acquisition and enhances Kenwood's reputation as one of the most significant examples of the neo-classical taste.

• Medium: mahogany & ormolu
• Dimensions: 60 x 75 x 45 cm
• Art Fund Grant: £21000
• ArtFunded in: 1994
• Vendor: Private collector

Provenance

Designed for Kenwood; sold 1922; Luton Hoo 1922.

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