Terrier Antiques

Description

Antique pair of extremely rare early 19th, late 18th century Somerset House leather fire buckets. The pair of buckets well made with riveted bottom rim, iron top band and hand painted crown armorial insignia with the Somerset house wording. Excellently formed with splayed feet and tapered body the fire buckets typically would have been filled with sand and used as a suppressant in the event of a fire breaking out. Notes: Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian quadrangle, which was built on the site of a Tudor palace belonging to the Duke of Somerset, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776. It was further extended with Victorian outer wings to the east and west in 1831 and 1856 respectively. Somerset House stood directly on the River Thames until the Victoria Embankment was built in the late 1860s.