Beschreibung:

A very rare pair of façon de Venise ewers, French (Nevers) or possibly Spanish, second half 17th centuryIn rich amethyst glass and of attractive small size and globular bottle shape, the tall necks with everted rims, applied in opaque white glass with flattened pincered scroll handles issuing from trailed vermicular collars, the swan-like spouts also in opaque white, 13.2cm high (2)FootnotesProvenance Private Dutch Collection A very similar pair of this rare class of ewers, also in amethyst glass but splashed with opaque white, is illustrated and discussed by Anna-Elisabeth Theuerkauff-Liederwald, Venezianisches Glas der Veste Coburg (1994), pp.392 and 401, nos.433-4, alongside another in opaque white on pp.401-2, no.435. These are shown together with a Dutch still life dated 1661 in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, which features a ewer of very similar form in clear glass, suggesting a 17th century date. Another in amethyst flecked with white in the Decorative Arts Museum in Prague is illustrated by Benátské Sklo, Venetian Glass (1973), fig.44, no.174. Their attribution is problematic, but an amethyst-blue glass example from the J Geyssant Collection has been attributed to Nevers by Jacqueline Bellanger, Verre d'usage et de prestige, France 1500-1800 (1988), p.286. These distinctive ewers are closely related to a rare class of flasks in amethyst glass flecked with white, including one from the Riaño Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no.248-1873) for which Theuerkauff-Liederwald suggests a Spanish origin based on the circumstantial provenance.