A FINE JAMES I SILVER-GILT STEEPLE CUP AND COVER

LONDON, 1607, MAKER'S MARK A DOLPHIN

細節

A FINE JAMES I SILVER-GILT STEEPLE CUP AND COVER
London, 1607, Maker's Mark a dolphin
The flaring waisted foot chased with flutes and on a rim of tongue-and-dart molding, rising to a baluster knop with a scalloped flange applied with cast scrolls surmounted by caryatids, the cup with chased roundels, each centering a scallop shell, with florettes between, the lower part of the cup with chased flutes, the cover similarly chased with roundels, scallop shells, and florettes surmounted by an obelisk finial on caryatid scroll feet and surmounted by a turned knop, marked near rim and on cover
20 in. (51.44 cm.) high

來源

J.H. Dewar-Harrison Collection, Christie's, London, July 19, 1944, lot 137
H. R. Jessop Collection, 1960
Christie's, London, June 15, 1983, lot 236
S.J. Shrubsole

出版

Michael Clayton, Christie's Pictorial History of English and American Silver, 1985 p. 55, no. 3
N.M. Penzer, "The Steeple Cup-IV," Apollo, October 1960, p. 106, fig. III

展覽

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1983

拍品專文

The steeple cup is a distinctively English form, and the 148 surviving examples recorded by Norman Penzer (op. cit.) range in date from 1599 to 1646. The steeple or obelisk motif was a popular architectural ornament throughout Europe in the mannerist period, but was only adopted for the covers of standing cups in England. Most steeple cups are partly-chased with acanthus or flat-chased with stylized foliage; the deeply chased scallop shells covering the surface of the present cup and cover create a particularly successful example of the form.

In writing of the present cup, Penzer states that "its interest lies in the fact that it is a unique example of the use of the scallop shell arranged concavely and convexly in alternate rows--both on the bowl and cover." (N.M. Penzer, "The Steeple Cup IV," Apollo, October 1960, p. 106, fig. III.)