Jim Peake
Head of Department
Lot 1
An exceptional Venetian enamelled and gilded pilgrim flask, late 15th or early 16th century
15 December 2020, 14:30 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £42,750 inc. premium
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An exceptional Venetian enamelled and gilded pilgrim flask, late 15th or early 16th century
Of typical flattened ovoid bottle form with a tall slender neck, decorated to each side with a large gilt roundel of imbricated lappets, embellished with rows of pale green and red dots with a central red, white and blue medallion and four outer lozenges, a band of flame-like motifs to the shoulder, the neck, sides and foot with formal bands of circlets within white dot and gilded borders, the sides with tear-shaped motifs pendant from two pairs of gilt loop handles, the high domed foot with a folded rim, 31.3cm high
Footnotes
Flasks of this particular type belong to a small but distinct group all with similar decoration, generous proportions and bodies that are slightly ovoid rather than circular in form. The form probably derives from 13th century Islamic prototypes. Two armorial flasks in the Museo Civico Mediaeval, Bologna, which appear to commemorate the marriage of Alessandro Bentivoglio and Ippolita Sforza in 1492, would appear to be among the earliest datable Venetian examples (see Astone Gasparetto, Il Vetro di Murano (1958), p.83 and fig.21, and Giovanni Mariacher, Glass from Antiquity to the Renaissance (1970), p.119, no.54). An example from the Biemann Collection, formerly in the Rothschild Collection in Paris, is illustrated by Barovier Mentasti et al., Mille Anni Di Arte Del Vetro a Venezia (1982), p.87, no.81. Another from the Mühleib Collection was sold by Bonhams on 2 May 2013, lot 3.
A virtually identical flask, possibly a pair to the present lot, was sold by Sotheby's on 26 April 2017, lot 180. A similar flask in the James De Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor is illustrated by R J Charleston and Michael Archer in the catalogue, Glass and Stained Glass (1977), no.17 and discussed at pp.91-3 where other similar flasks are also cited. Another from the Leopold Blumka Collection in the J Paul Getty Museum (accession no. 84.DK.538) is illustrated by Catherine Hess and Timothy Husband in the catalogue (1997), pp.87-9, no.20 and discussed alongside other examples from this group, including one in the Rijksmuseum (accession no. R.B.K 1957-14) which is illustrated by Pieter Ritsema van Eck, Glass in the Rijksmuseum (1993), p.19, no.3. Flame-like motifs similar to those around the shoulder of this flask are found on a number of Venetian glass pieces from the late 15th and early 16th centuries, see Dwight P Lanmon and David Whitehouse, Glass in the Robert Lehman Collection (1993), p.14 for a discussion. An armorial flask from the collection of Lady 'Lili' Maria Elisabeth Augusta Cartwright of similar date but more conventional circular form was sold by Bonhams on 29 September 2020, lot 4.
