Fine Porcelain and Pottery - 24th February 2015
Lot 234
A rare pair of Doccia oval double portrait plaques mid 18th century
Estimate £1,000 - £1,500 | Hammer £2200
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Description
A rare pair of Doccia oval double portrait plaques mid 18th century, each applied with two profile busts of Ancient Greeks, one with the poets Epimenides and Hesiod, the other with the astronomers Archimedes and Aristillus, reserved on a blue ground within a raised beaded border, incised to the reverse, 7.2cm. (2)
Cf. The Victoria and Albert Museum, Accession No. C128-1924 for a larger polychrome plaque featuring similar portrait cameos.
Cameo portraits of this type are first referenced at Doccia in 1747 with a payment to the sculptor Antonio Francesco Selvi for providing cameo models in wax, and then again in 1749 when Anton Filippo Maria Weber supplied 57 wax cameos for use on snuff boxes, etc. Oval plaques similar to these are mentioned in the inventory of porcelain at Doccia following Carlo Ginori's death in 1757.