A DOCCIA ARMORIAL PLATE FROM THE ISOLA MARANA SERVICE, MID-18TH CENTURY

This celebrated service was made at the command of Count Ginori for his friend the Marchesa Laura Isola Marana and delivered in 1750. Painters involved in the production of the service clearly included the celebrated Karl Anreiter, and there is clear evidence of the influence of the Du Paquier style from Vienna.

The first part of the service, at least, must have been delivered by October 30, 1750, when the Marchesa mentioned it in a letter, having complained to the Count that she had not yet received it in letters of the August 15, and August 22. However, the typology differs quite markedly between pieces of this service, and replacement pieces, or even a supplementary service, may have been made over the following few years. Examples are also to be found as follows:

A coffee pot in the Museo Duca di Martina, Naples (inv.1987);

A tureen in the Museo di Villa Cagnola Gazzada (inv.326);

A dish in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Cologne (inv.E3711);

Two large dishes in the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Vienna (inv. Ke6135 and Ke7905)

A dish in the Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, (inv.6327)

Three dishes in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (inv.25605 and 25606, 25707) a plate in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (inv. D.10824).

Four dishes from the service were sold by Sotheby's Milan from the Questa Collection, March 21, 2005, lots 284 to 287; and another three, December 21 2005, lots 342-344. A particularly close plate to the present example was in the Collection of Giovanni and Gabriella Barilla, sold at Sotheby's London, March 13, 2012, lot 246. A second similar plate was on the Dr Paul V. Ostermann Collection, Darmstadt/ Munich, sold, Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Berlin, October 30-November 2, 1928, lot 1038.