A Naples Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea porcelain Commedia dell’Arte scent bottle, circa 1795

Roberto Procida Mirabelli di Lauro Collection, Naples, no. 155, acquired anonymously in 1979;

Bonhams, London, 6 July 2010, lot 61.

Two other examples of this model, which was made with some slight variations, are illustrated by A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli, Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea 1743-1806, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 1986, p. 561, cat. nos. 560a, 560b. Two slightly different versions of the model are also illustrated by A. d'Agliano (ed.), Porcelain Scent Bottles, Giordano Art Collections, Turin, 2020, pp. 176-177, cat. nos. 45 and 46, where the author suggests that this humorous model of Pulcinella, the Neapolitan bringer of good fortune, may have been intended as a joke present, probably between gentlemen, rather than for practical use or as a romantic gift.