Ellis Finch
Head of Knightsbridge Silver Department
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Lot 515
ROYAL INTEREST: an Italian 'Royal House of Savoy' silver inkstand Carlo Balbino, Turin circa 1820, stamped 950 standard, hand inscribed 'No 2. On 31 d. 20'
18 – 19 April 2023, 10:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£2,000 - £3,000
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ROYAL INTEREST: an Italian 'Royal House of Savoy' silver inkstand
Carlo Balbino, Turin circa 1820, stamped 950 standard, hand inscribed 'No 2. On 31 d. 20'
On an incurved rectangular base, to the centre an engraved armorial for the 'House of Savoy', with a pair of large tapering cylindrical pierced ink pot holders constructed of four vertical fern-like fronds, surmounted by hinged domed covers with cast laurel leaf wreath finials, the pots attached together by a horizontal platform surmounted by an ornate embossed handle featuring a couped winged classical figure on a reeded base, to the back an ornate scrolling stand to rest pens horizontally upon, gadrooned rims across the whole with classical shell and acanthus motifs, raised on four shell feet, height 23cm, length 26cm, weight 35oz.
On an incurved rectangular base, to the centre an engraved armorial for the 'House of Savoy', with a pair of large tapering cylindrical pierced ink pot holders constructed of four vertical fern-like fronds, surmounted by hinged domed covers with cast laurel leaf wreath finials, the pots attached together by a horizontal platform surmounted by an ornate embossed handle featuring a couped winged classical figure on a reeded base, to the back an ornate scrolling stand to rest pens horizontally upon, gadrooned rims across the whole with classical shell and acanthus motifs, raised on four shell feet, height 23cm, length 26cm, weight 35oz.
Footnotes
Carlo Agostino Balbino (1777-1824, master 1798) was the founder of a firm that, since the early 19th century, became the primary silver manufacturer of Turin. Balbino's workshop was the main supplier to the Royal House of Savoy, and its silverware is present in the collection of the Royal Palace Museum (Turin) and the Quirinale Palace (President of the Italian Republic) in Rome. The firm participated in the 'Esposizione dei Prodotti dell'Industria' (Turin, 1838) and in the 'Esposizione Nazionale di Torino' (Turin, 1858)
The armorial shows that this silver inkstand was most likely made for the household of Prince Charles Albert of Savoy (1798-1849), otherwise known as Charles Albert (Carlo Alberto) of Sardinia-Piedmont. He was born at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin on the 2nd of October 1798, to Charles Emmanuel, the Prince of Carignano and Maria Cristina of Saxony. His father was the great-great-great-grandson of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, youngest legitimate son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and founder of the Carignano line of the Royal House of Savoy. Prince Charles Albert became King of Sardinia in 1831 on the death of his distant cousin Charles Felix, who had no heir. As King, after an initial conservative period during which he supported various European legitimist movements, he adopted the idea of a federal Italy, led by the Pope and freed from the House of Habsburg in 1848. In the same year he granted the Albertine Statute, the first Italian constitution, which remained in force until 1947.
In 1817, in Florence, Charles Albert married Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia (1801-1855), who was the daughter of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Princess Luisa of Naples and Sicily. On Charles Albert's abdication, their first-born son ruled as Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont (r. 1849–1861) and as first King of the unified Kingdom of Italy (r. 1861–1878).
Literature
Vittorio Donaver, Roberto Dabbene, Argenti Italiani dell-Ottocento, volume II punzoni dei argentieri Italiani, Milano 1989, p. 77, n. 166.
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