A fine façon de Venise latticinio goblet, late 16th or early 17th century


Decorated in vetro a retorti with alternate filigree and plain white striped decoration, the campana or bell-shaped bowl with a pine-cone moulded base, set on a hollow knop between collars, on a spreading foot folded at the rim, 13.8cm high
|ProvenanceA British private collectionMould-blown vessels in the form of pinecones originated in Roman times and enjoyed a revival in Renaissance Italy. While the effect is more likely to be decorative than functional, the textured surface could have prevented the glass from slipping when handled with greasy hands during a meal. A very similar glass is illustrated by Hubert Vreeken, Glas in het Amsterdams Historisch Museum (1998), p. 112, cat. 57. Other related glasses are discussed by Anna-Elisabeth Theuerkauff-Liederwald, Venezianisches Glas der Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg (1994), pp. 231-232, cats. 201-203. Three versions of the same model are illustrated by Ada Polack, Venetian Renaissance Glass: The Problems of Dating Vetro a Filigrana, in The Connoisseur, No. 774 (1976), p. 275. Similar glasses are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, accession no. 1814-1855, and the Corning Museum of Glass, accession nos. 50.3.3 and 79.3.458. A glass of this shape from the Overduin Collection was sold by Bonhams, 21 May 2014, lot 2 and is illustrated by Frides and Kitty Laméris, Venetiaans en Façon de Venise Glas 1500-1700 (1991), pp. 74-75, cat. 46. Another was sold by Christie's London, 16 November 2010, lot 12. Interestingly, an example was excavated in Chester in 1884 when digging the foundations of the Grosvenor Museum, see Historic Glass from North West England (1979), p. 41, cat. D6.