AN ITALIAN PARCEL-GILT SILVER PRESENTATION DISH

The dish is decorated with Greek mythological scenes depicting the pursuit of love featuring: Eurydice pursued by Aristaeus, Triton seducing a Nereid and Hylas and the Naiads. The scenes are loosely inspired by Annibale Carracci's frescoes in the Palazzo Farnese where the Nereid holding her flying drapery is clearly recognisable. The style and quality of the dish makes it an exceptional piece in the production of the Scheggi brothers who were an important family of silversmiths in Florence, commissioned by the Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany, as well as the Borghese with a service for Prince Camillo Borghese who married Pauline Bonaparte in 1803. The Scheggis had a taste for the Neoclassicism as shown by their designs published in the Magazzino di mobilia in 1797, however, this dish is an early expression of the historicist style as popularised by Percier and Fontaine and was probably a wedding gift as suggested by the choice of subject-matter. The ornaments on the border could have an heraldic significance. The scratch weight suggests a Russian provenance.