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Lot 748

A late Victorian pink granite London Metropolitan drinking fountain and horse trough

The Henley Sale
21 July 2007, 10:00 BST
Henley on Thames

£1,500 - £2,000

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A late Victorian pink granite London Metropolitan drinking fountain and horse trough

of font form, the dished moulded circular fountain bowl top surmounted by a pedestal urn reservoir with angular bronze taps and fitments, one tap lacking, on wide circular moulded column pedestal inscribed to side; PRESENTED BY THE METROPOLITAN DRINKING FOUNTAIN AND CATTLE TROUGH ASSOCIATION, and to the other side MISS ELLEN REARDON, IN MEMORY OF HER FATHER, MOTHER AND SISTER, DANIEL, ELISABETH AND MARGARET REARDON, 1880, 138cm high

Footnotes

A water fountain dated 1880 of polished granite of the same font like design with a similar dedication to the Reardon family can be found in Belverdere Recreation Ground, Woolwich Road, and a granite trough with drinking bowl at the head with similar bequest raised on granite bollards can be found at the entrance to 881 High Road Tottenham.

The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was an association set up in London by Samuel Gurney an MP and philanthropist and Edward Thomas Wakefield, a barrister in 1859 to provide free drinking water. Originally called the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association changed its name to include cattle troughs in 1867, in order to also support animal welfare.

The Society was inaugurated in 1859 with the requirement that "no fountain be erected or promoted by the Association which shall not be so constructed as to ensure by filters, or other suitable means, the perfect purity and coldness of the water." The first fountain was built on Holborn Hill on the railings of Saint Sepulchre's church on Snow Hill, paid for by Samuel Gurney, and opened on 21 April 1859. It was moved in 1867 when the Holborn Viaduct was built but reinstated in 1913 where it remains.

The fountain became immediately popular, used by 7000 people a day. In the next six years 85 fountains were built, but much of the funding came directly from the association; much of that money was provided directly by Samuel Gurney, as donations were not sufficient.

Gradually the association became more widely accepted, benefiting from its association with Evangelical Christianity and the Temperance movement. Beer was the main alternative to water, and generally safer. The temperance societies had no real alternative as tea and coffee were too expensive, so drinking fountains were very attractive. Many were sited opposite public houses. The evangelical movement was encouraged to build fountains in churchyards to encourage the poor to see churches as supporting them. Many fountains have inscriptions such as "Jesus said whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water I shall give him shall never thirst". By 1877 the association was widely accepted and Queen Victoria donated money for a fountain in Esher.

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