Chelsea pair of wine bottle coolers

Circa 1760     

Soft-paste porcelain 

Height: 5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm.)      

Width: 7 ¼ in. (18.4 cm.)

These wine coolers feature extremely rare decoration in the manner of François Boucher, possibly painted by Fidèle Duvivier after models by Nicholas Gauron or Pierre Stephan who both originally worked as modelers at Tournai and later moved to England working at Chelsea and Derby respectively by the mid 1760s. Duvivier, a nomadic painter, was employed at Chelsea some time between 1764-69 and married Elizabeth Thomas at All Saints Church, Derby in December 1769.