Jim Peake
Head of Department
Lot 36
An exceptional Venetian engraved latticinio goblet, late 16th century
1 December 2021, 10:30 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £69,000 inc. premium
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An exceptional Venetian engraved latticinio goblet, late 16th century
Of generous cup-shaped form with an everted rim, applied with two concentric lattimo bands each composed of three fine opaque white threads, the base with 'nipt diamond waies' decoration formed of eight pairs of thick lattimo threads in relief, the bowl finely engraved in diamond-point with a formal foliate border, bands of circlets and trefoils beneath, set on a hollow ball knop and spreading folded foot in vetro a fili, 13.6cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Paul Gresswell-Wilkins Collection
No other latticinio piece decorated in this way would appear to be recorded in the literature with diamond-point engraving, making the present goblet a unique survivor and exceptionally important. Vessels with similar 'nipt diamond waies' decoration in plain opaque white, vetro a reticello, or a combination of the two are generally dated to the late 16th century and all have a characteristic pale grey tint. A tazza with very similar 'nipt diamond waies' decoration and concentric bands in plain lattimo glass in the British Museum (inv. no.S.598) is illustrated by Hugh Tait, The Golden Age of Venetian Glass (1979), p.67, no.86. Another very similar tazza in the metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no1975.1.1216) is illustrated and discussed by Dwight P Lanmon and David Whitehouse, Glass in the Robert Lehman Collection (1993), pp.145-6, no.53, where several other related vessels are cited. Compare also to the Venini goblet in Corning Museum of Glass (inv. no.2013.3.15) and the goblet in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no.C.2474-1910).
