Live Auction 22980Philip Hewat-Jaboor: An Eye for the Magnificent
AN ITALIAN IMPERIAL PORPHYRY TAZZA
Lot 18

AN ITALIAN IMPERIAL PORPHYRY TAZZA

LATE 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY ROME

Closed8 February 2024

Price Realised

GBP 40,320

Considering selling a similar item?

Discover its value with a complimentary estimate from our specialists.

More Information

Conditions of Sale
How to sell

AN ITALIAN IMPERIAL PORPHYRY TAZZA
LATE 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY ROME
The shallow bowl with everted rim, on a ring-turned spreading moulded socle and square plinth
10 in. (26 cm.) high; 18 ½ in. (47 cm.) diameter

Almost certainly acquired by Sir Alexander Hope (1769-1837).
His house in Mayfair.
By descent to Henry W. Hope at Luffness House, where moved in 1888.
Sold by order of the trustees in 1923.
Sold Phillips, Knowle, 7 June 1989, lot 145 (together with the preceding lot).
Sold Didier Aaron Ltd., London, June 1990.
Acquired from Peter Petrou.

Specialist note


This elegant porphyry tazza is likely to have been inspired by tazze of antiquity, including the enormous porphyry basin measuring 14 feet in diameter that occupies the centre of the Sala Rotonda in the Vatican Museum (inv. no. MV.261.0.0). Basins of this form regained popularity among the Italian elite as early as the 16th century, as demonstrated by the large fountain in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Two comparable Roman tazze dating to the last quarter of the 18th century are in the collection of the Villa Borghese, Rome, one of porphyry in the Sala degli Imperatori (inv. no. CLXIV) and the other of granitello in the Sala Egizia (inv. no. CCVIII). Like the pair of elongated amphora vases in this collection (lot 17), this tazza was formerly in the collection of the Hope family in Luffness House (see footnote to the preceding lot).