Footnotes

Provenance: The Overduin Collection
The Anton Vecht Collection, sold by Sotheby's London, 10 November 1938, lot 18
The H. Schiftan Collection, Breslau
With Kunstzalen A. Vecht, sold 28 May 2005

Exhibited: This tazza was lent by Anton Vecht for exhibition in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, as part of the 'Internationale Tentoonstelling van Oude Kunst' in 1936, no. 649/734.

Tazzas such as this were often used for serving 'sweetmeats', which may have included sugared and spiced fruits, conserves, biscuits and other confectionery that formed the final course of a banquet. Similar tazzas decorated with comparable medallions depicting the winged lion of St. Mark are in the Fitzwilliam Museum illustrated in Glass at the Fitzwilliam Museum (1978), pp. 66-67, cat. 143, in the British Museum illustrated by Hugh Tait, The Golden Age of Venetian Glass (1979), p. 30, cat. 6, in the Glass Museum of Liege illustrated by Joseph Philippe, Glass: History and Art (1982), p. 75, cat. 84, and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no. 17.190.554. A sixth example, with slightly different moulding and with the foot lacking, was sold at Sotheby's London, 11 May 1999, lot 75. Similar tazzas painted with different medallions are illustrated by Tait, p. 29, cat. 5, by Margrit Bauer and Gunhild Gabbert, Europäisches und Aussereuropäisches Glas (1980), p. 66, cat. 120, and by Wilfred Buckley, European Glass (1926), pls. 6b and 7a.

Bonhams has commissioned a scientific analysis of the enamels used on this tazza as well as the Venetian wine goblet, lot 35 in this sale. Tests were carried out by Kelly Domoney of the Centre for Archaeological and Forensic Analysis at Cranfield University, using XRF techniques (X-Ray Fluorescence). The tests on the enamels on both objects provide virtually identical results and these are very consistent with published data for other early Venetian glass as well as with Venetian glass recipes of the period. The Cranfield University findings are summarised below.

'The chemical composition of the enamels decorated on the tazza and wine glass are consistent with published analytical data of enamelled Venetian glass objects in the Louvre and with Venetian recipes of the period. The light blue enamels are coloured with cobalt, copper, lead and tin. The yellows consist of antimony, zinc, tin and lead, indicating preparation from a yellow lead-stannate-antimonate pigment prepared with 'tuzia', a zinc containing compound. The green enamels have copper, lead and tin and are consistent with the raw materials used in Venetian recipes, i.e. copper oxide, mixed with a yellow pigment (usually lead-stannate) and a lead-tin calx. The red enamels are coloured with iron, lead and tin, and the white enamels are coloured with lead and tin.'