A Capodimonte white porcelain figure of 'Il Tamburino', circa 1750

Phillips, London, 3 June 1998, lot 192;

offered, 'Property of a Gentleman', Sotheby's, New York, 10 November 2006, lot 160.

It appears that only one other example of this exceptionally rare figure is recorded, also in the white, in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte, inv. no. 14509, illustrated in A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli: Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea 1743-1806, exhibition catalogue, Naples 1986, pp. 215-16, cat. no. 158; S. Musella Guida in Nicola Spinosa, et al., Porcellane di Capodimonte, La Real Fabbrica di Carlo di Borbone 1743-59, Naples 1993, p. 10, cat. no. 10.

The figure derives from an engraving used to illustrate Torquato Tasso's epic poem, La Gerusalemme liberata, first published in 1581 and then in Venice by Giambatista Albrizzi in 1745. The 1745 edition, which was dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, is highly regarded for its lavish decoration with engravings by Polanzani after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. The present figure is taken from the image of a drummer which appears in the foreground of engraving used to illustrate the finale of the IX Canto. The engraving was used in its entirety as a source for a painted scene on a Capodimonte coffee up, now preserved in the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, inv. no. 51.232.