Useful receptacles such as these buckets were designed to hold fire logs, and to form part of the respectable reception room furnishings of eighteenth-century townhouses. From the middle of the eighteenth-century, the best furniture was made in carved mahogany and these buckets - instead of using oak which was a cheaper and equally durable wood as mahogany - were made in mahogany reinforced with brass bands and with brass carrying-handles. The brass liners are modern.