Seau a glace thumbnail 1
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Seau a glace

Ice-Pail, Liner and Cover
1778 (made)
Artist/Maker
Sèvres Porcelain Factory (manufacturer)
Place of origin
France (made)

This ice-cream pail would probably have been one of a pair included in a dessert service with matching decoration. In the 1700s, the ability to keep anything cold during the summer indicated the wealth and status of an individual. Ice was hewn from the rivers in winter and stored in ice-houses for use during hot weather. The interior of the ice-pail and its deep cover would have been filled with crushed ice and the ice-cream spooned into the plain liner inside where it would freeze, or almost freeze, sandwiched in between.
Ice-pails were made at Sèvres from 1758 onwards. We know the first ones mentioned in the records were included in a service given by Louis XV to the Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria in 1758. These, together with their matching service items decorated with green ribbons and flowers, can still be seen in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna today.

Object details

Categories
Ceramics
Porcelain
Drinking
Object type
Ice-pail, liner and cover
Parts
This object consists of 3 parts.

  • Ice Pail Body
  • Ice Pail Cover
  • Ice Pail Liner
Titles
  • Seau a glace (manufacturer's title)
  • jatte a glace (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels and gilt
Soft Paste Porcelain
Painted
Glazed
Gilt
Brief description
Porcelain ice-pail, cover and liner, the pail and cover painted in enamels and gilt, made by Sèvres porcelain factory, France, 1778
Physical description
Ice-pail of round shape with angular handles, the deep cover with a handle formed by two upright C-shaped acanthus fronds. The pail and cover are decorated with flowers sprays, the rims with blue enamel feathered borders and gilded lines, the liner is undecorated.
Dimensions
  • Height: 220mm
  • Width: 240mm
  • Depth: 191mm
Measured, with parts assembled, by Conservation.
Marks and inscriptions
  • Interlaced 'L's in blue enamel with date letter 'AA' (Maker's mark)
  • 'L' in blue enamel, probably for Denis Levé (Painter's mark, Denis Levé was active 1754-1805)
  • 'BD' in blue enamel for François Baudouin (Gilder's mark, François Baudouin, père, was active from 1750-1800)
  • none (incised)
Gallery label
(09/12/2015)
Family label for Europe 1600-1815:

Ice cream was a great luxury in the 1770s. Strange flavours were invented, including cheese. This pail was made to keep ice cream cold using ice. Before modern machines, ice could be made by collecting snow and packing it tightly into an underground room to stop it from melting.

What is the strangest flavour of ice cream you can think of?
Credit line
Bequeathed by Mrs T. R. P. Hole
Object history
Bequeathed by Mrs. T.R.P. Hole.
Subject depicted
Flowers
Summary
This ice-cream pail would probably have been one of a pair included in a dessert service with matching decoration. In the 1700s, the ability to keep anything cold during the summer indicated the wealth and status of an individual. Ice was hewn from the rivers in winter and stored in ice-houses for use during hot weather. The interior of the ice-pail and its deep cover would have been filled with crushed ice and the ice-cream spooned into the plain liner inside where it would freeze, or almost freeze, sandwiched in between.
Ice-pails were made at Sèvres from 1758 onwards. We know the first ones mentioned in the records were included in a service given by Louis XV to the Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria in 1758. These, together with their matching service items decorated with green ribbons and flowers, can still be seen in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna today.
Bibliographic references
  • Marcelle Brunet and Tamara Préaud. Sèvres des origines à nos jours, Office du Livre, 1978, see catalogue no. 151, 174p. for an example at Waddesdon Manor of about 1767-1770 with a turquoise ground reserved with birds in landscapes. Ice-cream pails or coolers were used to serve ice-cream during the dessert course. The ice-cream sat in the inner liner, kept cold by two layers of crushed ice: one in the body of the pail below, the other filling the deep cover above. The factory inventory of 1st October 1759 lists a mould and an example of seau à glace of the second size. An example, priced 432 livres was included in the ribbons service presented by Louis XV to the Empress Marie-Thérèse of Austria in December 1758. In presentation services from then on there was always at least one pair of ice-cream pails, sometimes two. The service ordered by the Empress Catherine II of Russia included ten pairs.
  • Geoffrey de Bellaigue. The Louis XVI Service, Sèvres Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge University Press 1986. See plate XX for the single example of this shape included in the dessert part of the Louis XVI service. Dated 1785, it is decorated with a blue ground and mythological scenes by Dodin and gilded by Le Guay, it was delivered on 23rd October of that year, see catalogue no. 43.
  • Geoffrey de Bellaigue. French Porcelain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Royal Collection Publications, 2009, 3 vols. For a discussion of this shape see vol. II, catalogue no. 153 and vol III, Glossary A, shape 18.
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
C.237 to B-1987

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Record createdJune 7, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O100500/seau-a-glace-ice-pail-liner-sèvres-porcelain-factory/
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