CIRCA 1815, UNDERGLAZE BLUE SCEPTRE MARKS, PAINTER'S BLACK LOZENGE MARK TO CUPS AND SAUCERS, CUPS WITH PRESSNUMMERN 36, SAUCERS WITH INDISTINCT INCISED MARKS

細節

A Berlin gold-ground pietra dura and micro-mosaic part-service
Circa 1815, underglaze blue sceptre marks, painter's black lozenge mark to cups and saucers, cups with Pressnummern 36, saucers with indistinct incised marks
Each with vertical gilt bands alternating with gilt vermiculé bands below a broad band of octagonal rectangular panels painted to simulate micro-mosaic with birds perched on branches alternating with octagonal rectangular green-ground panels of similated pietra dura with antique flaming incense-burners, between bands of stylised gilt foliage, comprising:

A teapot and cover, the teapot of octagonal lozenge section with tapering straight spout, the loop handle with ciselé foliage thumbpiece, the raised upper rim with three arched panels, the flat inset cover with gilt sphinx finial (chipping to tip of spout)

A sugar-basin and cover, the basin of octagonal lozenge section, the raised upper rim with four arched panels, the flat inset cover with gilt sphinx finial (small restored chip to edge of cover)

A milk-jug of octagonal lozenge section, the raised upper rim with two arched panels and the front forming the lip, the loop handle with ciselé foliage thumbpiece

Three cups and octagonal saucers, the cups of tapering octagonal section, the loop handles with ciselé foliage thumbpieces, the interiors richly gilt (interior of one cup with minute area of flaking to gilding)
The teapot 5½ in. (14 cm.) high

來源

Rohloff Collection 1975 19

出版

Erich Köllmann and Margarete Jarchow, op. cit. (Munich 1987), Vol. II, fig. 462.

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

Micro-mosaic decoration, which evoked the lavish decorations of antiquity, became enormously popular during the 18th century. At the end of the century, the technique of making micro-mosaics was refined and perfected in the Vatican Mosaic Workshop. The minute segments, or tesserae, were made from a type of opaque enamel called smalti. This material was heated and drawn into long thin sticks, or filati, and small sections were subsequently broken off to form the tesserae. These were attached to a support with a slow-drying glue, and once completed, only the cross-section of each filati was visible.

Some of the badly paid workers began to take commissions, and this was further stimulated by the Napoleonic occupation which boosted the secular art trade. Napoleon re-named the Vatican workshops the Studio Imperiale del Mosaico and ordered the 'Shield of Achilles' table, now at Versailles. By 1810 there were twenty small independent workshops in the area around the Spanish Steps, all of which were producing small souvenirs with micro-mosaic decoration. As these objects were so easily carried, the fashion for them began to spread rapidly, and a few years later this trade boomed even further with the greater prosperity brought about by the end of the Napoleonic wars. A wide variety of objects, including table-tops, snuff-boxes, plaques and jewellery were decorated with a wide variety of subject matter including topographical views, portraits, ornithological subjects, reproductions of antique sculptures or works by Renaissance masters. For a full discussion of this technique and its history, see Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel et. al, 'The Gilbert Collection, Micromosaics' Catalogue (London 2000).