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Lot Essay
The arms correspond to those used by the Pifati family of Verona and to those used by a branch of the Bonaiuti family of Florence. There are three other extant plates painted with the same arms, and the four plates may once have formed a service.
The border of one of the other plates(1) is decorated with trophies which include ribbons or scrolls inscribed with three mottoes, one of which, NEH SPE NEH METU, is a misspelled version of Isabella d’Este’s motto NEC SPE NEC METU (‘without hope or fear’). The maiolica scholar Timothy Wilson has noted that the unicorn was used as an impresa by several generations of the d’Este family, so perhaps the service may be connected to them. Wilson, however, also balances this suggestion, pointing out that ‘against this attractive idea are the facts that the placing of the unicorn in a shield suggests a family coat of arms rather than an impresa, and that the other two plates with these arms, which might have formed part of the same service, lack any inscriptions’(2). The other two pieces are both in museums in Paris: one in the Musée du Louvre(3) and the other in the Petit Palais(4).
A plate of this design was exhibited by the collector/dealer Alexander Barker in the 1862 South Kensington Exhibition. It was described as having a ’border of fine arabesque ornaments, masks, cornucopias, &c., richly lustred with gold and ruby’, so it cannot have been one the other three surviving examples, as the present lot is only example with cornucopias on the border.
1. In a private collection in Germany, see Timothy Wilson, Tin-Glaze and Image Culture, the MAK Maiolica Collection in its wider context, The MAK, Vienna, April – August Exhibition Catalogue, Stuttgart, 2022, p. 129, no. 81, and J.V.G. Mallet and Franz Adrian Dreier, The Hockemeyer Collection, Maiolica and Glass, Bremen, 1998, pp. 130-131, pp. 228-229, no. 13.
2. Wilson, ibid., 2022, p. 129.
3. Jeanne Giacomotti, Les majoliques des Musées nationaux, Paris, 1974, pp. 210-211, no. 677.
4. Catherine Join-Dieterle, Musée du Petit Palais. Catalogue de Céramiques I, Paris 1984, pp. 180-181, no. 58, and Françoise Barbe and Carmen Ravanelli Guidotti, Forme e «Diverse Pitture» della Maiolica Italiana, La collezione delle maioliche del Petit Palais della Città di Parigi, Venice, 2006, p. 164, fig. 84, where the reverse, with lustred concentric circles, is also illustrated, fig. 84v.
The border of one of the other plates(1) is decorated with trophies which include ribbons or scrolls inscribed with three mottoes, one of which, NEH SPE NEH METU, is a misspelled version of Isabella d’Este’s motto NEC SPE NEC METU (‘without hope or fear’). The maiolica scholar Timothy Wilson has noted that the unicorn was used as an impresa by several generations of the d’Este family, so perhaps the service may be connected to them. Wilson, however, also balances this suggestion, pointing out that ‘against this attractive idea are the facts that the placing of the unicorn in a shield suggests a family coat of arms rather than an impresa, and that the other two plates with these arms, which might have formed part of the same service, lack any inscriptions’(2). The other two pieces are both in museums in Paris: one in the Musée du Louvre(3) and the other in the Petit Palais(4).
A plate of this design was exhibited by the collector/dealer Alexander Barker in the 1862 South Kensington Exhibition. It was described as having a ’border of fine arabesque ornaments, masks, cornucopias, &c., richly lustred with gold and ruby’, so it cannot have been one the other three surviving examples, as the present lot is only example with cornucopias on the border.
1. In a private collection in Germany, see Timothy Wilson, Tin-Glaze and Image Culture, the MAK Maiolica Collection in its wider context, The MAK, Vienna, April – August Exhibition Catalogue, Stuttgart, 2022, p. 129, no. 81, and J.V.G. Mallet and Franz Adrian Dreier, The Hockemeyer Collection, Maiolica and Glass, Bremen, 1998, pp. 130-131, pp. 228-229, no. 13.
2. Wilson, ibid., 2022, p. 129.
3. Jeanne Giacomotti, Les majoliques des Musées nationaux, Paris, 1974, pp. 210-211, no. 677.
4. Catherine Join-Dieterle, Musée du Petit Palais. Catalogue de Céramiques I, Paris 1984, pp. 180-181, no. 58, and Françoise Barbe and Carmen Ravanelli Guidotti, Forme e «Diverse Pitture» della Maiolica Italiana, La collezione delle maioliche del Petit Palais della Città di Parigi, Venice, 2006, p. 164, fig. 84, where the reverse, with lustred concentric circles, is also illustrated, fig. 84v.