A wonderful pair of early nineteenth century wine coolers made from Old Sheffield Plate dating to around 1820, Georgian in era.Old Sheffield Plate is the process of fusing a layer of silver on to a layer of copper. The process was discovered by Thomas Boulsover in 1742. Old Sheffield plate is highly sought after due to it''s rarity and age - it was superseded by cheaper electroplate in the early 1840''s.The traditional way of incorporating an armorial crest or monogram into an Old Sheffield Plate piece is by sinking a solid sterling silver ingot into the area to be engraved, this way no base metal (copper) would show through the engraving. You can see a rectangular shadow to each cooler where this was undertaken.Of ever-popular campana form, the tops are decorated with a superb raised grapevine border, beautifully hand chased; detachable collars and cylindrical liners. Please see the picture to ensure they are reassembled correctly where the two pieces join in one place onl...