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Lot 1

Roman, late 16th century
A rare lock-plate and hasp
possibly from the foundry of Jacopo (c. 1520-1604) and Ludovico (fl. 1551-1601) del Duca,

Sculpture
15 April 2008, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £14,400 inc. premium

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Roman, late 16th century
A rare lock-plate and hasp

possibly from the foundry of Jacopo (c. 1520-1604) and Ludovico (fl. 1551-1601) del Duca,
cast with the arms of the Bussi family, gilt-bronze, with the original, simple iron lock riveted on behind, 18cm wide, (7" wide), 22cm high, (8.5" high) (To be sold with a copy of C.Avery, Studies in Italian Sculpture, Pindar Press, London, 2001) (2)

Footnotes

Provenance:
Claude Sere, Paris

Literature:
Charles Avery, Fontainebleau, Milan, or Rome? A Mannerist Bronze Lockplate and Hasp, in Charles Avery, Studies in Italian Sculpture, London, 2001, p. 382, “New Entries”, no. 44, fig. 21.

This type of lock-plate and hasp is fascinating on account of the fact that at the tip of the hasp there is a shield of arms, normally within an oval cartouche: these provide clues as to the identities of the families that commissioned them. It has become apparent in the course of research that they were – beyond reasonable doubt – made in Rome, in a bronze-foundry that was adept at ‘customising’ the hasps with the impaled arms of individual married couples. From the dates of marriages of several of the couples an average date of around 1585-1600 emerges. During this time span, the strongest candidate for the production is the foundry of Jacopo (c. 1520-1604) and Ludovico (fl. 1551-1601) del Duca, whose other, more important, activities have recently been published (J. Montagu, Gold, Silver and Bronze, Metal Sculpture of the Roman Baroque, New Haven / London, 1996, pp. 19-28, figs. 30-35).

This may have been a cheaper expedient than commissioning a woodcarver to produce the heavy, domestic wedding cassoni that were then fashionable with the coats-of-arms of the newly-wed couple carved separately at opposite ends of the piece of furniture. These lock-plates, enlivened by gilding, provided the same heraldic and dynastic information, but were applied to lighter, travelling cassoni, making them the late Renaissance fashionable equivalent of today’s de luxe luggage (e.g. by Louis Vuitton).

The coat-of-arms impaled dexter on the hasp with the pair of eyes is that of the noble Roman family of Bussi: arms: 'D'azzurro a due occhi accostati in fascia'- 'Azure, two eyes side by side'. In their family chapel - first in the right aisle - in Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome, there are identical arms on: a monument of 1742 dedicated to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Bussi, Bishop of Ancona, and papal nuncio to Cologne, who died in 1726, with a bust by G.B. de Rossi; and on a colossal coloured marble intarsia that occupies the whole opposite wall of the chapel.

The Bussi family came from Orvieto and then Viterbo. They belonged to the Orders of the Knights of Malta and of Santo Stefano [the Tuscan order of chivalry, founded by Cosimo I]. Despite many enquiries, the identity of the family with whose arms the Bussi arms are impaled is as yet unknown: the two items stuck into the tops of the mounds resemble the wooden grain shovels used as ceremonial emblems in the Florentine Accademia della Crusca.

Additional information

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