Bottle roller
Anticipating large presidential entertainments, George Washington ordered twelve wine coolers from England in October 1789. When the coolers proved too unwieldy to pass around the table, he proposed the creation of decanter stands "open at the sides, but with a raised Rim as Castors have - and an upright by way of handle in the middle." Philadelphia silversmith Joseph Cooke was commissioned to create a pair of these silver bottle rollers. Upon his retirement from the presidency, Washington brought the rollers to Mount Vernon, where they continued to facilitate the orderly flow of wine at dinner.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 144-145.
Andy McConnell, The Decanter: An Illustrated History of Glass from 1650 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors' Club, 2004), 194, 197.
Martha Gandy Fales, "The Silver," Magazine Antiques 135/2 (February 1989): 520.
Kathryn Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver (Mount Vernon, Virginia: The Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, 1957), 59-60, 73.
Benson J. Lossing, The Home of Washington (Hartford, Connecticut: A. S. Hale & Company, 1870), 264-265.
Benson J. Lossing, Mount Vernon and its Associations: Historical, Biographical, Pictorial (New York: W.A. Townsend & Co., 1859), 249 - 251.