An Important Pair of Silver Wine Coolers by Lewis Mettayer, London 1714
Silver
London, 1714
Maker's mark of Lewis Mettayer
Height: 23 cm (9 1/4 in)
Diameter: 22.5 cm
Length over handles: 29 cm (11 1/2 in)
Weight: 7,160 g (230 oz)

These are an extremely important and rare pair of wine coolers by the famous silversmith, Lewis Mettayer. They are amongst the earliest known pair of this form in English silver with only a handful of examples that predate them such as a pair by David Willaume made for the Duke of Devonshire in 1698, a pair for the Duke of Malborough made in 1700 and an identical pair made also by Williaume in 1711.

This pair were a Royal gift and appear in the Jewel House Records as being gifted to Paul Methuen.

The arms are those of Paul Meuthen (1672 – 1757), a family of German origin. Sir Paul Meuthen was the son of John Meuthen (1650-1706), an English diplomat and envoy to Portugal who negotiated an important trade treaty, the Methuen Treaty, between England and Portugal in 1703.

A pair of identical silver wine coolers, hallmarked London 1711 by David Willaume I, from the collection of Diethelm Höner, were sold at Sotheby’s New York, 18 October 2001, lot 123. They were made for Thomas Wentworth, 1st Count of Strafford.

Provenance: Paul Meuthen (1672 – 1757)

Literature: Michael Clayton, The Collector’s Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America. Pl 723
Christopher Hartop, The Huguenot Legacy: English Silver 1680 – 1720 from the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection
John Hayward, Huguenot Silver
Hugh Tait, London Huguenot silver in Huguenots in Britain and their French Background, 1550-1850.