A NAPLES (REAL FABBRICA FERDINANDEA) COFFEE-CAN AND SAUCER

CIRCA 1790, BLUE CROWNED N MARKS, INCISED MARK TO CUP

Details

A NAPLES (REAL FABBRICA FERDINANDEA) COFFEE-CAN AND SAUCER
CIRCA 1790, BLUE CROWNED N MARKS, INCISED MARK TO CUP
The cup painted with Marsia and Olimpo, the saucer with the Centaur Chirone instructing Achilles, each enclosed by a gilt square or circular frame embellished with blue entwined ribbon and gilt dot ornament, the reserve with pink-ground and gilt-line bands and a border of blue arches enclosing gilt triangles to the rim (very fine glaze hairline crack to cup, some minute wear to gilding)

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 2 February 1976, lot 49.

Brought to you by

Tom Johans

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Lot Essay

The subject matter for both scenes is taken from wall paintings in the Basilica at Herculaneum. The scene with Chiron and Achilles was initially discovered in November 1739, and the scene with Marsia and Olimpo in 1760, when more in depth work on revealing the paintings began. For illustrations of the original wall paintings and Naples biscuit figure groups depicting corresponding subject matter (and dating to the same period as the present coffee-can and saucer), see Angela Caròla-Perrotti, Exhibition Catalogue, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli, Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea 1743-1806, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, December 1986 - April 1987, Naples, 1986, pp. 433-436, nos. 363, 364, 365 and 367.

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