Wine Cooler owned by George Washington sold for $782,500

This particular wine cooler was not just meant for the first President of the United States – but designed by him as well. The Sheffield plate bowl was designed to fit four bottles as well as ice. It was one of the four coolers that Washington would order in 1789, the year he was sworn into office and moved into his first official residence, on Cherry Street in Manhattan.

About a decade later, the cooler was gifted by Washington to Alexander Hamilton – the first treasury secretary not for any intrinsic value the thing possesses, but as a token of my sincere regard and friendship for you, and as a remembrance of me. in the words of Washington as written by him in a letter to Hamilton. The cooler has since belonged to descendants of Hamilton who had the contents of the letter engraved onto the letter. The letter itself lies in the collection of George Washington letters in the Library of Congress.

The auction winner – Gary Hendershott is a collector based in Little Rock, Arkansas and promises to get a glass of wine at the earliest possible from the cooler . The first toast, he says , will be to George Washington.

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