Rare French Copper Monteith, circa 1780

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Rare French Copper Monteith, circa 1780

About the Item

French, copper extremely heavy and rare oversized patinated copper monteith with cast brass handles top rim, circa 1780. Measures: 18.0″ L, 10.0″ W, 6.25″ H. Monteiths, filled with cool water or ice, were used for chilling wine bottles and cooling or rinsing wine glasses; the latter were inverted and hung from the notched rim. The earliest written mention of monteiths may be by Anthony á Wood, an Oxford diarist writing in 1683. This yeare in the summer time came up a vessel or bason notched at the brims to let drinking glasses hang there by the foot so that the body or drinking place might hang in the water to coole them. Such a bason was called a ‘Monteigh’ from a fantastical Scot called ‘Monsieur Monteigh,’ who at that time or a little before wore the bottome of his cloake or coate so notched UUUU. The earliest known silver monteith is from England and bears a date-mark for 1684/85, and some made soon afterward had removable notched rims, allowing the vessels to double as punch bowls. The earliest record of a monteith in America may be an item in the 1701 will of William Fitzhugh of Stafford County, Virginia. He left to his son “my Silver Monteeth Bason which I have brought out of England.” At first only affordable by the very wealthy, monteiths also were made over the next two centuries in less costly styles and materials. Ceramic and wooden monteiths, because of their fragility, rarely survive today, and only one glass monteith, from the late 1600s, is known. From the 1760s onward, however, glass was increasingly popular for smaller, usually cylindrical wineglass coolers or “rinsers” with smooth rims and one or two lip-like extensions to hold the inverted glasses. Wine rinsers could be filled with cool water to chill wineglasses or rinse them before a new wine was poured. Although rare, sets of rinsers do survive. Early documents and paintings indicate they were placed next to individuals at the dinner or supper table. Cyrus Redding, in the 1839 Every Man His Own Butler (London) tells us In all cases wine-glass coolers, with the coldest water, should be laid out on the table and the glasses reversed in them. No one should pour out more wine with his dinner than he intends to take at one sip, and then immediately reverse his glass

Dimensions:
Height: 6.25 in (15.88 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)Depth: 10 in (25.4 cm)
Style:
Louis XVI (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass,Copper,Cast,Patinated
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
Late 18th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1780
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Woodbridge, CT
Reference Number:
Seller: B-40791stDibs: LU185934185313