A rare diamond-engraved ewer and basin - Lot 24

A rare diamond-engraved ewer and basin A rare diamond-engraved ewer and basin bearing the coat of arms of Raimondo Ferretti Bearing the coat of arms of Raimondo Ferretti (1650-1719) Venice, 1690-1692 Ewer: H. 22.7 cm; basin: H. 16.7 cm; diam. 43 cm Provenance: Sotheby's, London, English and Continental Glass, June 30, 1980, lot 196 (ill.) ; Collection Orazio Bagnasco, Lugano, his sale : Christie's, London, An Important Collection of Venetian and Façon de Venise Glass, March 28, 2000, lot 70 (ill.) ; Private collection, France. Exhibition: Venetian Glass. Trésors inédits, Musée Ariana, Geneva, 1995, no. 204. Bibliography: E. Baumgartner, Verre de Venise. Trésors inédits, exhibition catalog: Musée Ariana, Geneva, 1995, pp. 71-72 and 112, no. 204. Comparative bibliography: G. Boesen, Venetianske Glas på Rosenborg / Venetian Glass at Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, 1960. Klesse, Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Köln, Cologne, 1973. F. & K. Laméris, Venetiaans & Façon de Venice glas 1500-1700, Amsterdam, 1991. A.E. Theuerkauff-Liederwald, Venezianisches Glas der Veste Coburg. Die Sammlung Herzog Alfreds von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1844-1900), Lingen, 1994. The ewer is slightly curved and flared, with a wavy, broadly hemmed rim. It is diamond-engraved with a large decoration of wallflowers and other flowers with angels and birds on each side. Below the spout, the Ferreti coat of arms is engraved, "Argent two bends Gules". They are surmounted by a bishop's hat with tassels and a double-crowned eagle flanked by angels holding crowns. The full, angled handle is engraved with foliage. The leg consists of a large, flattened hollow knob, between two discs, above a domed foot hemmed and engraved with a leafy border with bays and dot motifs. The large basin, with its folded, flared rim, rests on a ring of applied glass. The engraved decoration is composed of foliage and floral scrolls, including large wallflowers between four Ferreti coats of arms: two under a double-headed crowned eagle and two under an angel holding a crown. Condition: good Raimondo Ferretti (1650-1719), a native of Ancona, was the first bishop and governor of Loreto and Recanati (1690-1692), then appointed archbishop of Ravenna in 1692, under the pontificate of Innocent XII. Our ewer and basin bear his coat of arms with the bishop's galero, allowing them to be dated between 1690 and 1692. By tradition, they would have been used for baptisms in the Palazzo Mengoni-Ferretti in Ancona. Although individual ewers or basins may be quite similar in form, the set presented here appears to be the only complete and finely decorated example to have survived (cf. Sotheby's, London, July 29, 1974, lot 92; Christie's, London, February 12, 1980, lot 292; Christie's, London, October 16, 1990, lot 242; Theuerkauff-Liederwald, p. 84, no. 25 and p. 418, no. 457; Klesse, p. 149, no. 289; Laméris, p. 87, no. 61). The foot of our ewer can be compared to pieces offered to Frederick IV of Denmark during his stay in Venice in 1708, now kept at Rosenborg Castle (cf. Boesen, ill. 1 and 18). These pieces have a similar typology, with a bell-shaped foot and a hollow knot.