Live Auction 188120th Century Decorative Art & Design including a selection of Antique & Modern Glass Paperweights
A PIETRO BIGAGLIA SIGNED AND DATED SCRAMBLED MILLEFIORI WEIGHT AND A PIETRO BIGAGLIA SCENT-BOTTLE
Lot 610

A PIETRO BIGAGLIA SIGNED AND DATED SCRAMBLED MILLEFIORI WEIGHT AND A PIETRO BIGAGLIA SCENT-BOTTLE

THE FIRST WITH A 'PB 1846' TO ONE CANE, AND '1846' TO ANOTHER CANE, THE SCENT BOTTLE MID 19TH CENTURY

Closed26 September 2007

Price Realised

USD 15,000

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A PIETRO BIGAGLIA SIGNED AND DATED SCRAMBLED MILLEFIORI WEIGHT AND A PIETRO BIGAGLIA SCENT-BOTTLE
The first with a 'PB 1846' to one cane, and '1846' to another cane, the scent bottle mid 19th century
The weight set with numerous scattered silhouettes, including two gondolas, an Imperial double-headed eagle initialed FI, ducks, dogs, horses, flowers, other animals, possibly Pantalone from the Commedia dell'arte and a lyre, on a ground of scattered lengths of multicolored latticinio tubing, other canes, and aventurine; the scent-bottle of flattened tear-drop form, the narrow black neck crimped and encircled at the top with gold aventurine, the body with eight portrait canes including two of an unidentified stylish lady and six thought to be Francis Joseph I, Emperor of Austria 1848 to 1916, among strands of blue, red, turquoise and white glass amidst swirls of aventurine fleck
2 13/16 in. (7.2 cm.) diameter, 1¾ in. (4.5 cm.) high, the weight; 1 7/8 in. high, the scent bottle (2)

with L.H. Selman, Santa Cruz, Fall, 2002, lot 87 (the scent bottle)

Specialist note

Cf. The Harriet N. Smith Collection, Christie's, New York, 1 October 2004, lot 106; anon. sale, Christie's, London, 7 July 2005, lot 319; and L.H. Selman, Santa Cruz, 13 October 2000, lots 55 and 56 for other examples.

See also the article by Albert Christian Revi, 'Miniature Portraits in Glass Rods', The Annual Bulletin of the Paperweight Collectors Association, Inc., June 1958, for a discussion on the collaboration of Giacomo Franchini and Pietro Bagaglia; and Paul Hollister, The Encyclopedia of Glass Paperweights, New York, 1969, pp. 19 and 20, fig. 4, for a similarly dated weight.

It is interesting to note that Bigaglia paperweights were listed in the Austrian section of several of the Great Exhibitions of the day, as Venice was then part of Austria-Hungary, until it was united with the Kingdom of Italy in 1866. The current lot encloses an Imperial eagle cane bearing the initials FI (Ferdinand Imperator). Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria reigned 1835-48.