CIRCA 1535

Details

AN URBINO MAIOLICA CONDIMENT STAND
CIRCA 1535
Of canted triangular form, the central egg-shaped well inscribed in ochre with the initials ·F·X·A·R· for Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo, flanked by three circular wells for ·Sale·, ·Olia· (?) and ·Spercie., supported by cherubs on a dark-blue ground reserved with martial trophies, rosettes and foliage, within an ochre line rim, supported on three ochre paw feet
7¾ in. (20 cm.) wide

Provenance

Purchased by Frederick, 4th Earl Spencer (1798-1857) on 29 March 1855 from Toms and Luscombe for £15.

Literature

W.B. Honey, Catalogue of the Porcelain and Pottery both Oriental and European in the Collection of Earl Spencer at Althorp, 1937.
(II) (B), ITALIAN MAIOLICA, No. 369 - Salt-cellar, painted with Putti, signed by Fr. Xanto Avelli da Rovigo. URBINO. About 1535. X168.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

For the triangular-shaped salt dated 1532 from the Pucci Service now in the British Museum, see J.V.G. Mallet, Exhibition Catalogue, Xanto Pottery-Painter, Poet, Man of the Italian Renaissance, London, The Wallace Collection, 2007, pp. 122-3, cat. no. 37, which is decorated with similar cupids and trophies. John Mallet refers to two other known triangular-shaped salts with champhered corners; the first by Xanto, signed F.X., is in the Kunstgewerbe-museums, Berlin, and the second, attributed to the Milan Marsyas Painter, is in the Chicago Art Institute.

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