Set of four wine coolers

This set of wine coolers was inspired by the Buckingham Vase excavated on the grounds of the imperial villa at Tivoli, outside Rome (AD 118-130). In the late-18th century British travelers brought back many Roman antiquities, where they contributed to the formation of numerous British art collections, public and private, and fueled the popularity of the neoclassical style. The Buckingham Vase, a 46-inch high marble urn acquired by the first Marquess of Buckingham, was known through engravings published by the versatile Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Rather than exact replicas of the actual vase, the wine coolers are adaptations of Piranesi's engravings.