Antique George III Wine Cooler By Matthew Boulton With Robinson Crest 18th C

This is an elegant antique English Old Sheffield plate silver on copper ice bucket or wine cooler, circa 1790 in date, and bearing the sunburst makers marks of the world renowned silversmith Matthew Boulton.

The cooler is of campana baluster form and has a pair of foliate cast scroll handles, gadrooned borders and flared rim.

It features an engraved Hamilton family crest with the motto
 

'Qualis ab Incepto'   (The same from the beginning)

The Marital Arms of Robinson and Maltby

The armorial bearings as engraved upon this George III Old Sheffield Plate Wine Cooler by Matthew Boulton dating to circa 1790 are those of Robinson impaling Maltby. These armorial bearings denote the marshalling of a marital coat showing on the dexter (the heraldic right on the left as you view the piece) the arms of the husband and on the sinister (the heraldic left on the right as you view it) the arms of the wife.

These arms undoubtedly commemorate the marriage of William R2. Robinson (born circa 17933 died 11th December 18664), of 17 Hyde Park Terrace, Paddington in the County of Middlesex and of Austin Friars in the City of London and his first wife, Jane Maltby (baptised 29th May 17966 died 1833). They were married at the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Walthamstow in the County of Essex on the 8th June 1819. William was the eldest son of William Tooke Robinson, of Water House, Walthamstow in the County of Essex and his wife, Isabella Straker, whilst Jane was the fourth daughter of Thomas Maltby, of Upper Harley Street in the County of Middlesex and of Walthamstow in the County of Essex and his wife, Henrietta Crichton.
See attached photos of the document and the house.

The attention to detail is absolutely fantastic and it is certain to attract attention wherever they are placed.

Condition:

In excellent condition with clear makers marks and no dings, dents or signs of repair. Please see photos for confirmation.

Dimensions in cm:

Height 28 x Width 27 x Depth 27

Dimensions in inches:

Height 11 inches x Width 11 inches x Depth 11 inches

Matthew Boulton
 
Boulton was not a "goldsmith" or a "silversmith" in the accepted sense, yet for his achievements and services to the craft of goldsmithing he is fully worthy of inclusion in the list of great English goldsmiths.
Matthew Boulton was born in Birmingham on 3 September 1728. His father Matthew Boulton (senior) was a "toy maker" and silver stamper specialized in the production of shoe-buckles.
Boulton junior was taken into partnership in 1749 and was left in sole charge of the business after the death of his father in 1759.
Boulton had the ambition to establish a manufacturing complex where craftsmen in the various branches of the "toy" trade would work together under one roof, enabling him to reap both wholesale and retail profits. In 1761 he realized his project purchasing a one-hundred- year-lease of the "Soho" estate at Handswoth Heath (two miles from Snow Hilton the Wolverhampton Road).
In 1762 Boulton took into unofficial partnership John Fothergill who would act as a travelling salesman to advertise his wares and the factory moved to Soho in the same year.
The partnership concentrated in the production of steel "toys" a little later on buttons and buckles made in a variety of substances, including , of course, silver. In 1762 Soho factory began to produce articles in "Sheffield" plate and one of the first to adopt "Sterling silver thread" edging which prevent to reveal the underlying copper.
Boulton soon became the largest manufacturer of "Sheffield plate" of the country expanding the business of Soho manufactory in the production of bijouterie, objects d'art and de virtue, in ormolu, pinchbeck and shell, and in clocks.
In 1765 Boulton began the manufacture of pieces in solid silver, being obliged to send every piece of plate to Chester to be marked (Chester was the nearest assay office, 72 miles away from Birmingham). Boulton was the promoter a petition obtaining in 1773 the Royal Assent to assay silver in Birmingham (the same was for Sheffield).
Boulton & Fothergill entered their joint mark consisting of their initials, MB before IF. After the death of Fothergill (1782) Boulton punched his plate with his initials alone.
When manufacturers of plated ware were permitted to register their marks at the Assay Office in Sheffield (1784), Boulton registered his mark of "twin suns" under the name Boulton M. & Co.
The most important designers for Boulton plate in the neo-classic taste were Robert Adams and James Wyatt.
Matthew Boulton died on 17 August 1809.
The mark MB continued to be used by Matthew Boulton Plate Co until 1832. 

Old Sheffield Plate - or ‘fused plate' as it is sometimes known, was the first commercially viable method of plating metal.  The material was accidentally invented by Thomas Boulsover, of Sheffield's Cutlers Company, in 1743. While trying to repair the handle of a customer's decorative knife, he heated it too much and the silver started to melt. When he examined the damaged handle, he noticed that the silver and copper had fused together very strongly. Experiments showed that the two metals behaved as one when he tried to reshape them, even though he could clearly see two different layers.

Boulsover set up in business, funded by Strelley Pegge of Beauchief, and carried out further experiments in which he put a thin sheet of silver on a thick ingot of copper and heated the two together to fuse them. When the composite block was hammered or rolled to make it thinner, the two metals were reduced in thickness at similar rates. Using this method, Boulsover was able to make sheets of metal which had a thin layer of silver on the top surface and a thick layer of copper underneath. When this new material was used to make buttons, they looked and behaved like silver buttons but were a fraction of the cost.

The technique Boulsover developed was to sandwich an ingot of copper between two plates of silver, tightly bind it with wire, heat it in a furnace and then mill it out in to sheet, from which objects could be made.