Lot 16
16
A LUSTRED TAZZA

Details
A LUSTRED TAZZA
GUBBIO, CIRCA 1530-1540

Lustred in copper and ruby and painted in blue, the domed center moulded with a salamander and an eagle, the sloping sides moulded with stylized cypress trees alternating with lotus leaves, the underside lustred with the letter A and with scattered brush strokes and inscribed in red with Sackler number 79.5.21 (minor rim chips, wear to raised surfaces, restored rim chips at 12, 2:30-3, 4 and 9 o'clock, star crack to underside, test drill holes filled)--9½in. (24.1cm.) diam.
Provenance
Robert Lehman, New York
A Collector, New York; Christie's, London, April 4, 1977, lot 41
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, June 26, 1978, lot 173
With Cyril Humphris, London

Lot Essay

The present tazza is from a class of thinly potted wares moulded with bosses to better reflect and play with the metallic lustres with which they are decorated. Cf. Chompret, Vol. I - p. 112, Vol. II - no. 739 for a similarly potted and lustred tazza formerly in the Dutuit Collection and moulded with a similar central image.

Sold with thermoluminescence certificate 381r65 dated December 1985 from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, stating that the sample tested was last fired between 350 and 540 years ago (1445-1635).