Glass Cooler

Applied Arts of Europe

c. 1809–19

Martin-Guillaume Biennais (French, 1764–1843)
Probably designed after Charles Percier (French, 1764–1838) and
Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (French, 1762–1853)
Paris, France

The cool, bright nature of silver is exploited to great effect in this bowl, or verrière. Its decorative motif was also meant to create a chilly impression, showing swans, cattails, and playful dolphins above a band of aquatic plants. When this piece was made, guests at elegant dinner parties customarily consumed menus of many courses, each with its own carefully selected accompaniment from the wine cellar. In the days before modern refrigeration, serving chilled drinks was not as simple a task as it is today: the glasses themselves first had to be cooled on a bed of ice and then filled with vintages that were cooling in their own ice-filled silver containers. This verrière is part of a larger dinner service made for Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, on the occasion of her marriage to the Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, Sixth Prince of Sulmona. The coat of arms of the Borghese family is prominently displayed. Its iconography—an eagle above a winged dragon, surmounted by a crown—is somewhat obscure, but this crest had served the family at least since a previous Camillo Borghese was elected pope (as Paul the Fifth) in 1605.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Applied Arts of Europe

Artist: Martin-Guillaume Biennais
Title: Glass Cooler
Place: Paris (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1809–1819
Medium: Gilt silver
Inscriptions: MARKS: “[lozenge with seated monkey and two pellets above B, maker’s mark] / [cock with 1 in right corner in horizontal octagonal shield, Paris assay mark, 1809-19],” on center of base and under surface of handles; “[helmeted dexter head of Minerva in circular shield, Paris excise mark, 1809-19] / [head of Apollo in oval shield, unofficial Paris assay mark, 1809-19],” on center of base INSCRIPTIONS: “Biennais Orfre de Lrs Mtes Imperiales et Royales à Paris,” engraved on center of base; “1628.24 [repairer’s number or inventory number],” scratched under surface of handles; “[Borghese armorials surmounted with Napoleonic Crown,]” embossed on center of body
Dimensions: 12.7 × 22.4 × 33 cm (5 × 8 13/16 × 13 in.); 12.7 × 22.3 × 32.8 cm (5 × 8 3/4 × 12 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Charles V. Hickox
Reference Number: 1966.105
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/25116/manifest.json

Catalogue des objets d’art et d’ameublement qui garnissent le grand appartement au premier étage du palais du Prince Borghese à Rome (Rome: Imprimerie Editrice Romana, 1892), pp. 128-30 (esp. p. 128), lot 847, no. 7.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Summer Loan Exhibitions,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 18, no. 6 (September 1924): mentioned p. 79.
“McCormick Art to be sold in January at American-Anderson Galleries,” The Art News, vol. XXXII, no. 10 (9 December 1933): p. 127.
“Historic Silver and Fine Tapestries Feature McCormick Sale,” The Art Digest, vol. VIII, no. 6 (15 December 1933): p. 15.
“McCormick Art Collection Now on Exhibition,” The Art News, vo. XXXII, no. 12 (23 December 1933): p. 16.
Anderson Galleries, The Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick (New York: American Art Association, 1934): p. 104-5, lot 679-80.
“Exhibitions and Sales,” Antiques, vol. XXV, no. 1 (January 1934): pp. 25-26 (ill.).
“McCormick Auction,” The Art News, vol. XXXII, no. 15 (13 January 1934): pp. 3, 14.
“Exhibitions and Sales,” Antiques, vol. XXV, no. 2 (February 1934): pp. 69-71.
“New York Sales,” The Connoisseur, vol. 93, no. 390 (February 1934): pp. 135-136.
“American Art Sales,” Apollo, vol. XIX, no. 3 (March 1934): p. 174.
John Maxon, “Report of the Associate Director,” The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1965-1966, p. 34, p. 11.
Allen Wardwell, “Continental Decorative Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Antiques, vol. XCII, no. 4 (October 1967): p. 512-13.
Eleanor Page, “A Princely Table Service,” Chicago Tribune (20 April 1970): p. B14.
John W. Keefe, et al., Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1976), pp. 156, 162-171, cat. 260, 267 (Ill.).
Celia Hilliard, “’Higher Things’: Remembering the Early Antiquarians,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, vol. 28, no. 2 Gift Beyond Measure: The Antiquarian Society and European Decorative Arts, (2002): mentioned p. 16.

Rome, Palais Borghese, Apartment du Prince Borghese, March 24 – March 26, 1892.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Summer Loan Exhibition, July 1 – October 1, 1924.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Paulina Borghese Silver, October 1924 – November, 1932.
New York, Anderson Galleries, The Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick, December 28, 1933 – January 6, 1934.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, January 24 – March 28, 1976.

Probably commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte I, between 1809 and 1819 as a gift to Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese (per Paris Assay marks for 1809-1819, engraved and embossed Napoleonic Crowns surmounting the Borghese Crests, and inscriptions “orfevre de Lrs. Mtes. Imperialism et Royales a Paris” on pieces of the service); private collection of Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese; thence by descent, Borghese Palace, Rome; sold their sale Rome, Apartment du Prince Borghese, 1892 (Lot 847, copy of catalog in curatorial file, see publication history for exact lot); possibly with Antonio Licata, Naples, 1892. With Ercole Canessa, dealer, Naples, Paris, or New York, by 1892; sold to Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Chicago, before 1924; sold her sale, New York, Anderson Galleries, The Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick, 1934 (lots 628-774, copy of catalog in curatorial file, see publication history for exact lot); collection of Charles V. and Catherine Barker Spaulding Hickox, New York, NY, until 1966; given to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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