LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details

A rare Venetian diamond-engraved armorial ewer and basin
Late 17th Century
The ewer of slightly waisted flared form with everted waved and folded rim, engraved in diamond-point with the arms of Ferretti beneath an archbishop's hat, a double-headed eagle flanked by angels holding crowns, two storks amongst numerous small birds in flight and with a spray of carnation and other flowers to either side, the angular handle engraved with foliate ornament, supported on a large hollow flattened knop above a domed and folded foot engraved with berried foliate border and dot ornament, the large basin with everted folded rim, an applied footring and shallow kick-in base, the sides engraved with four coats-of-arms, two beneath a double-headed eagle and two beneath an angel holding a crown, and issuant with carnation-sprays and other flowering foliage
The ewer 9 in. (23 cm.) high, the basin 16¾ in. (42.5 cm.) diam. (2)

Provenance

Anon., sale Sotheby's, 30 June 1980, lot 196.

Literature

Baumgartner 1995, pp. 71-72 and 112, no. 204.

Exhibited

Musée Ariana, Geneva, May - September 1995, no. 204.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The arms are for Raimondo Ferretti of Ancona (died 1701), first Bishop and Governor of Loreto and Recanati, and later Archbishop of Ravenna during the pontificate of Clement X. The ewer and basin is reputed to have been used as a baptism set in the Palazzo Mengoni-Ferretti in Ancona.

Whilst both ewers and basins of this form, either undecorated or sparsely engraved, are recorded in the literature, see Christie's London sale, 12 February 1980, lot 292 and 16 October 1990, lot 242; Theuerkauff 1994, p. 84, no. 25 and p. 418, no. 457; Klesse 1973, p. 149, no. 289; Baumgärtner 1987, p. 44, no. 38, and Laméris 1991, p. 87, no. 61, the present elaborately engraved armorial ewer with its matching basin would appear to be the only known complete example.

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