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Lot Essay
The powerful navette form of this impressive vase, possibly executed in granito bigio verdognolo, relates it to a vase in red porphyry in the Palazzo Doria Pamhilj, Rome (illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Fasto Romano, exh. cat., Rome, 1991, cat. 167, p. 208 and pl. XLI).
Other vases of navette form in red porphyry include two pairs in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (illustrated in P. Malgouyres and C. Blanc-Riehl, Porphyre, exh. cat., Paris, 2003, cat. 27, p. 113, and cat. 29, p. 115) and a set of four at the Château de Versailles. A design for a closely related navette-form vase by Abbé Elphidio Benedetti (c. 1610-1690), Cardinal Mazarin's agent in Rome, is illustrated in Malgouyres and Blanc-Riehl, op. cit., p. 138.
Another example in granito verde minuto borghesiano was sold anonymously, Christie's London, 21 June 2000, lot 22 (£31,000 exc. premium), and a final example in red porphyry, lacking its lid and probably acquired by John, 3rd Earl of Bute on the Grand Tour, was sold from the Bute Collection, Christie's, London, 3 July 1996, lot 3 (£28,750 inc. premium).
Other vases of navette form in red porphyry include two pairs in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (illustrated in P. Malgouyres and C. Blanc-Riehl, Porphyre, exh. cat., Paris, 2003, cat. 27, p. 113, and cat. 29, p. 115) and a set of four at the Château de Versailles. A design for a closely related navette-form vase by Abbé Elphidio Benedetti (c. 1610-1690), Cardinal Mazarin's agent in Rome, is illustrated in Malgouyres and Blanc-Riehl, op. cit., p. 138.
Another example in granito verde minuto borghesiano was sold anonymously, Christie's London, 21 June 2000, lot 22 (£31,000 exc. premium), and a final example in red porphyry, lacking its lid and probably acquired by John, 3rd Earl of Bute on the Grand Tour, was sold from the Bute Collection, Christie's, London, 3 July 1996, lot 3 (£28,750 inc. premium).