The first objects in lacquered metal were made in the early eighteenth century and correspond to coolers, also referred to as buckets in which bottles and crushed ice were placed. The decoration was an imitation of Far Eastern lacquer by eighteenth century European painters, especially French painters who specialised in this technique. In addition to decoration imitating imported lacquers, the form of the cooler incorporates designs which were applied to gold and silverware, metalware, earthenware and porcelain production, allowing the manufacture of similar shapes at a lower cost.
Several pairs of coolers can be compared to our example, such as those from the 2014 Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibition (236 and 237, pp. 271-273). The pair here presented under lot 29 also have the advantage of being able to be compared to an example made at the Sèvres factory during 1750 (see for example a pair of buckets in Sèvres porcelain, Sotheby's sale New York, December 5, 2015, lot 60).