Though called ice pails (seaux à glace) in the Sèvres records for this service, the present bowls and covers were designed to keep food warm, in the manner of a bain marie, and may have been a special request by the Irish nobleman who purchased it. Their form is based on that of an ice pail and adapted from a Vincennes veilleuse, hot water beneath the liner replacing the open flame used as a heat source in the earlier version. For a Vincennes example with a warming bowl, stand to house the flame of a small lamp, and a cover of the same form as the present examples, see Christie’s, Paris, 17 May 2010, lot 106.

Francis Thomas Fitzmaurice, 3rd Earl of Kerry (9 September 1740 – 4 July 1818) purchased the present coolers as part of a larger dinner service just after his marriage in 1768 to Anastasia Daly, a woman some twenty years his senior who divorced her first husband to marry the Earl. The Earl was known to live quite an ostentatious lifestyle, which eventually caused his financial ruin and the loss of his Irish estates. See D. Peters, op. cit., for a further discussion of this service, which originally comprised 78 pieces. The present serving wares and two corbeille ovales were the most expensive items in the service, at 240 livres each.

Jean-Jacques Pierre le jeune was active at Sèvres from 1763 to 1800 as a gilder and painter of flowers and patterns.