ITALIAN MAIOLICA 'BELLA DONNA' DISH
URBINO, CIRCA 1535
£7,500
Auction: 7 December 2011 from 11:00 GMT
Description
the shallow dish painted in blue, yellow, orange, dark copper green, brown, black, and opaque white, on a dark blue background with three quarter turned head and shoulders of a woman with a green ribbon in her hair, the inscription 'ANGELLA BELLA' scratched through the blue ground and some foliated scrolling to her left and right
Dimensions
22cm diameter, 4.3cm high
Footnote
Provenance:
In the collection of the family of the present owners since the late 19th / early 20th century. There is firm evidence from entries in the family archives to show that this dish was acquired from the collection of H.A. Peto in 1899.
Note:
This type of portrait relates particularly closely to an example in the V&A, inscribed 'Amaro chi me amara' scratched through the background in much the same way, except the letters are picked out in successfully fired lustre. (See Bernard Rackham, Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, 1940, Reprinted with corrections and additional bibliography by J.V.G. Mallet, cat 716 , plate 113, London, 1977)