A silver-gilt and enamel tazza - Lot 10

A silver-gilt and enamel tazza A silver-gilt and enamel tazza Mexico, 1610 Diam. 21 cm Pds 775 g. Marked: M crowned between two columns: Mexico 1610 (Carretero Rebes, p. 64, n° 4, hallmark 42; Esteras Martin, p. 15, hallmark 37) Provenance: Tour & Taxis collection; By descent, private collection, Zurich; Private collection, Paris. Comparative bibliography : C. Oman, The Golden Age of Hispanic Silver, 1400 - 1665, London, 1968. J.A. De Lavalle & W. Lang, Arte y Tesoros del Perú - Platería Virreynal, Lima, 1974. M.J. Sanz Serrano, La Orfebrería Sevillana del Barroco, Seville, 1976. S. Carretero Rebes, Platería religiosa del Barroco en Cantabria, Santander, 1987. C. Esteras Martin, Marcas de Platería Hispanoamericana - siglos XVI - XX. Madrid, 1992. J. M. Cruz Valdovinos & A. Escalera Urena, La Platería de la Catedral de Santo Domingo, Primada de América, Santo Domingo, 1993. J. Hecht, "New Identities for Some Old Hispanic Silver" in: The Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 29, New York, 1994, pp. 77-88. J. M. Cruz Valdovinos, Platería en la Fundación Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid, 2000. C. Esteras Martin, La Platería de la Colección Várez Fisa - Obras escogidas siglos XV - XVIII, Madrid, 2000. C. Esteras Martin, La Colección Alorda Derksen - Platería de los siglos XIV-XVIII (obras escogidas), Barcelona / London, 2005. The gilded silver tazza is decorated with a frieze of pearls on the edge of the wing, which is composed of eight compartments: four engraved with foliate scrolls alternating with four adorned with an oval cabochon decorated with arabesques in translucent blue, orange and green enamel. The bottom of the tazza is engraved with foliate scrolls and fleurons, framing enamelled pieces comprising: a central umbilicus adorned with interlacing, fleurons, foliate scrolls and birds in translucent blue, orange, green and turquoise enamel; four pairs of elongated oval cabochons decorated with arabesques in translucent blue, orange and green enamel. The low base is composed of a cylinder between molded disks, the widest of which forms the base. This tazza is one of the earliest known pieces of silverware to be hallmarked Mexico City. Until the end of the 17th century, New World silverware was strongly influenced by contemporary Spanish production, to the point where it is difficult to differentiate stylistically between a Mexican or Peruvian piece, for example, and one made in Spain, without a hallmark. For example, the enamelled cabochons characteristic of production during the reigns of Philip III and Philip IV can be found on objects from Mexico City, Lima or Barcelona (for Spanish pieces, see Oman, nos. 133 to 148, pl. 149 to 156, figs. 231 to 246; Cruz Valdovinos 2000, nos. 67-68). Among the rare gilded silver objects decorated with enamel cabochons made in Mexico that have come down to us, we can cite in particular: a tazza, a bowl and a salt cellar from the Alorda Derksen collection, Barcelona (cf. Esteras Martin 2005, pp. 140-142, no. 23, pp. 146-148, no. 24 & pp. 182-185, no. 32); a tazza from the Seville Cathedral Treasury (cf. Sanz Serrano, vol. I, p. 358, fig. 55 & vol. II p. 150, no. 2); a chalice from the Várez Fisa collection, Madrid (cf. Esteras Martin 2000, pp. 118-121, no. 42); a chalice in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Bequest of Michael Friedsam, inv.32.100.230); a chalice in the Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico (cf. Hecht, p. 79, fig.5), another chalice and a reliquary cross from the treasury of the Cathedral Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación, Primada de América, Santo Domingo (cf. Cruz Valdovinos & Escalera Urena, pp. 90-91, no. 11; De Lavalle & Lang, p. 57); a monstrance in the Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Tepotzotlán.