AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF WILLIAM III SILVER WINE COOLERS, DAVID WILLAUME, LONDON, 1700

Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne (1835-1914) to his son

Ivor Churchill Guest, 1st Viscount Wimborne (1873-1939) to his son

Ivor Grosvenor Guest, 2nd Viscount Wimborne (1903-1967) to his son

Ivor Fox-Strangeways Guest, 3rd Viscount Wimborne (1939-1993).

Christie's, Geneva, May 15, 1985, lot 92

Al-Tajir collection, sold

Christie's, London, June 3, 2014, lot 369

The Glory of the Goldsmith, Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, London, 1989, p. 65, no. 44.

These superb wine coolers belong among the very earliest examples of the form in English silver, but the design is sophisticated and fully developed, probably being derived from French prototypes by Ballin or De Launay. David Willaume had made a pair of wine coolers in silver-gilt for the Duke of Devonshire in 1698 that may be the earliest known examples of the formf. In 1701 two "ice paills" were part of the Ambassadorial plate issued to the Duke of Marlborough. 

Slightly later examples include Willaume's pair of 1705 from the Fitzwilliam Collection, those made for Lord Strafford about 1710 (Sotheby's, New York, October 18, 2001, lot 123), and two pairs by Lewis Mettayer of 1713 for Speaker Hanmer and 1714 for Lord Methuen.

Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne (1835-1914) was born at Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, the son of Sir John Josiah Guest, 1st Bt. (1785-1852) and his second wife Lady Charlotte Elizabeth (1812-1895), only daughter of Albemarle Bertie, 9th Earl of Linsday (1744-1818). Ivor succeeded his father in 1852, inheriting not just the title but 84,000 acres of land and the Dowlais Ironworks, a family business since 1867, with 18 blast furnaces producing 88,400 tons annually and a payroll of 8,800.

After Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, Bertie Guest married in 1868 Lady Cornelia Henrietta Maria Spencer-Churchill (1847-1927), daughter of John, 7th Duke of Marlborough, and thus was brother-in-law of the 8th Duke and Sir Randolph Churchill, and uncle by marriage)( of the 9th Duke and Sir Winston Churchill. 

He served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1862 and as mayor of Poole from 1896-1897. In 1880 he was named Baron Wimborne, of Canford Magna (Dorset) with the support of Disraeli's. He died in 1914 at Canford Manor, Dorset, now a school, and was succeeded by his son, later created Viscount Wimborne.