PROBABLY BARCELONA, SECOND HALF 14TH CENTURY, APPARENTLY UNMARKED

Details

A SPANISH SILVER-GILT AND BASSE TAILLE ENAMELLED CHALICE
Probably Barcelona, second half 14th Century, apparently unmarked
On hexafoil base, the moulded sides with narrow pierced band, the centre enamelled with six panels from the Passion - The Entry into Jerusalem, The Betrayal, The Flagellation, The Crucifixion, The Entombment and The Resurrection, the figures partly gilt and set against predominantly blue, green, and brown enamelled backgrounds, the hexagonal architectural stem enamelled with panels of black tracery in arcading with pillars between, the knop enamelled with the busts of Saints in quatrefoils, the broad tapering bowl partly enclosed with calyx engraved with further Saints including Saint James of Compostela and Saint Andrew, the base secured beneath by an elaborate screw head engraved with a flower
8½ in. (21.5 cm.) high
Gross weight 33 oz. (1,033 gr.)

Provenance

Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt. (1850-1912), Bath House, London, by whom bequeathed, with a life interest to his widow, Alice, Lady Wernher, subsequently Lady Ludlow (1862-1945), to their son
Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt., G.C.V.O. (1893-1973), Bath House, London, and from 1948, Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, and by descent.

Literature

1913 Bath House Inventory, p. 129, no. 645, in the safe.
1914 Wernher Inventory, p. 36, no. 189.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The magnificent enamelled chalice made for the Count of Majorca, now in the Louvre, Paris, and attributed to a Barcelona workshop, circa 1360, shares several characteristics with the present example (N. de Dalmases and A. J. Pitarch, Historia de L'art Catals, III, L'art Gotic, S.XIV-XV, Barcelona, p. 283; and G. Taylor, Continental Gold and Silver, London, 1967, p. 47, pl. 24). The mounting of the tapering basse taille enamel panels in the base, the architectural elements in the stem, the form of the knop and calyx are all common to both, although the bowl of the Louvre example is somewhat narrower and also enamelled. The similarities are such as to suggest that the two chalices may have originated in the same workshop.

The translucent enamels on this important chalice are also similar to those found on a silver-gilt processional cross in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. This is struck with the town mark of Tarragona, 70 kilometres to the south of Barcelona, in Catalonia and dates from the last quarter of the fourteenth century (C. Oman, The Golden Age of Hispanic Silver, London, 1968, no. 2, pls. 4 and 5). The sleeping guard illustrated in the lower right of the scene of the risen Christ on the processional cross is very similar to the figure on the parallel scene on this chalice (ibid. fig. 10).

We are grateful to Dr. Rafael Munoa of the Royal Academy of History and Dr. Cruz Valdovinos, Doctor of Art History, Complutense University, Madrid, for the reference to the Louvre chalice and for their comments on all the Spanish pieces in the Wernher Collection.

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