A VENETIAN POLYCHROME AND GILT-ENAMEL BASIN

This basin, with its palette of cream, deep blue, green and delicate gold decoration, is typical of Venetian enamels from the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century. The technique is thought to be derived, ultimately, from glass objects created in the Near East (Verdier, op. cit., p. 5, no. 3). A limited number of domestic and ecclesiastical examples are known in museum collections including the Walters Art Gallery (Verdier, loc. cit.) and the Martin D'Arcy Gallery of Art, Chicago (loc. cit.).

A slightly larger basin, but with almost identical decoration, sold Sotheby's, London, 2 December 2008, lot 29 (£91,250).