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Lot Essay
In 1570 Archduke Ferdinand II of the Tyrol founded a glasshouse at Innsbruck with craftsmen from Murano who he had obtained by pressuring the Venetian authorities. The cultured Regent had created the most celebrated cabinet of curiosities of the time at Schloss Ambras (the greater part of those objects are now preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna) and his interest in glass stemmed from this passion for the rare and curious object, even to the extent of his blowing glass himself. Venetian master glassblowers recorded at Innsbruck include Pietro d'Orso (1571), Salvatore and Sebastiano Savonetti (1573-1578) and Andrea Tudino (1575 and 1583) all of whom had to return to Murano having honoured their contracts.
For comparable examples in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, see Egg 1962, pl. XIV, nos. 27 and 28; also see Rckert 1982, pl. 39, no. 147; Egg 1962, pl. XV, no. 30 and pl. XVII, no. 35; Drahotova 1982, p. 37, no. 12; Strasser/Spiegl 1989, p. 163, no. 6 and Dorigato 1986, pl. 21.
The long accepted attribution to the Court Glasshouse at Innsbruck for this unusual group of glass with its distinctive grey tint and 'cold-painted' and diamond-point engraved decoration has recently been questioned and a tentative attribution to Venice suggested, see Theuerkauff 1994, p. 242 and Baumgartner 1995, p. 99 where he notes that that Archduke continued to purchase Venetian pieces after the opening of his own Glasshouse mentioning that in 1575, for example, he acquired "10 vergoldete Deckelpokale" (see Egg 1962, p. 45).
For comparable examples in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, see Egg 1962, pl. XIV, nos. 27 and 28; also see Rckert 1982, pl. 39, no. 147; Egg 1962, pl. XV, no. 30 and pl. XVII, no. 35; Drahotova 1982, p. 37, no. 12; Strasser/Spiegl 1989, p. 163, no. 6 and Dorigato 1986, pl. 21.
The long accepted attribution to the Court Glasshouse at Innsbruck for this unusual group of glass with its distinctive grey tint and 'cold-painted' and diamond-point engraved decoration has recently been questioned and a tentative attribution to Venice suggested, see Theuerkauff 1994, p. 242 and Baumgartner 1995, p. 99 where he notes that that Archduke continued to purchase Venetian pieces after the opening of his own Glasshouse mentioning that in 1575, for example, he acquired "10 vergoldete Deckelpokale" (see Egg 1962, p. 45).