THIRD QUARTER OF THE 16TH CENTURY

Details

AN URBINO MAIOLICA ISTORIATO CHARGER
THIRD QUARTER OF THE 16TH CENTURY
The foreground painted with the Egyptian army floundering in the Red Sea before two groups of Israelites on a spit either side of a rocky outcrop, a further group of Israelites appearing from behind rocks at the far right, before a bay with distant buildings below mountains, within a blue line and ochre band rim, the reverse inscribed EXODE · XV Maria · dAron · Sorella pres · i faraoni· · in blue enclosed by concentric ochre bands, the border with an incised af and 31 Fountaine Collection inventory number (triangular section of border between 4 and 5 o'clock broken out and restuck with branching cracks and three small areas of filled losses, slight chipping to rim)
17½ in. (44.5 cm.) diam.

Provenance

Probably Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753), Narford Hall, Norfolk, and by descent to
Andrew Fountaine IV (1808-1873); Fountaine sale, Christie's, London, 16-19 June 1884, lot 358 (33 guineas and 12 shillings to J.C. Williams)
J.C. Williams Collection, and by descent to the present owner.

Literature

Andrew Moore, 'The Fountaine Collection of maiolica', The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXXX No. 1023, June 1988, pp. 440 and 447.

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Lot Essay

The formation of the Fountaine Collection, the two inventories of it taken by Andrew Fountaine IV and its dispersal at the legendary 1884 Christie's sale is discussed in the introduction to this and the previous lot on page .

The subject, which is taken from Exodus, Chapter XV, is the victory song of Miriam, in celebration of the Israelites' deliverance after their flight from Egypt. The inscription EXODE · XV Maria[m] d[i] A[a]ron Sorella pres[so] i faraoni translates as 'Exodus [Chapter] XV Maria[m] sister of Aaron with the pharaohs'.

In Fountaine IV's first 1835 list the present dish is recorded on shelf 1, which displayed 'Large Raphael ware dishes', as number 13, and it was described as 'Maria d'Aron sorella mis a faraoni. Ex. CXV'. The dish is listed in the second 'Family Book' inventory as number III:31. The entries for the dish in the 'Family Book' inventory and in the Narford Hall copy of the Christie's catalogue do not bear any annotated initials, suggesting that in all probability this dish formed part of the original 18th century core of the collection formed by Sir Andrew Fountaine (d. 1753).

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