Tiffany & Co./ John C. Moore Pair of Antique Sterling Silver Wine Coolers, New York City, 1856-70

American wine coolers in solid silver are very rare. These stunning examples by Tiffany & Co. have their original liners and collars. These large coolers are restrained in their ornamentation leaving most of the surfaces to reflect their surroundings.

The doorknocker shaped handles are exceptional castings of lions with oval loop swing handles in their jaws. The details are beautiful and quite striking against the rest of the body.

The top shoulders of the bodies have applied banding in a classical Greek-key design topped with fine beading. This same design creates the bottoms of the domed pedestal bases.

The removable, wide collars fit snugly onto the attached interior liners. It is lovely to find coolers of this quality that still have all their parts intact.

The collar is also sterling and accommodates a standard size bottle of wine or champagne. Florists can also fit the liners for displaying stunning floral arrangements.

These rare coolers are marked underneath 'TIFFANY & CO/ 521/ ENGLISH STERLING/ 925-1000/ 5285/ 550 BROADWAY' along with two gothic 'M' marks of John C. and son Edward C. Moore. These marks were used from 1854-1870. According to Tiffany Silver by Charles H. Carpenter, Jr., the pattern number '521' dates the design to c. 1856 (p. 224), hence our dating of 1856-70.

The coolers measure 9 inches wide by 9.5 inches high and weigh an impressive 142.05 troy ounces. They are in very good antique condition.