A polychrome Italian 'istoriato' maiolica crespina, attributed to the Amazon Painter or the Virgiliotto Calamelli workshop, Faenza, ca. 1560–1570

Dia.: 26,2 cm - H.: 8,6 cm

The base with an indistinctly scratched number 115 and a star, refers to an inventory of the Fountaine collection at Narford Hall, Norfolk, known as the 'Family Book', made between 1855 and 1873, some years before the sale of the whole of this maiolica collection at Christie's, in 1884. The Narford Hall collection was the greatest private collection ever assembled in England, and sold at Christie’s in 1884.

The catalogue entry in the 1884 sale states: 'A Dish with scalloped edges, a figure on white horse, others looking into a cistern, buildings and a pyramid in the background, back painted in blue and yellow - 10 inches'. It was bought by Martin Colnaghi for £21. A group of similar crespinas with the same attribution are in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Brunswick, see Johanna Lessman, Italienische Majolika, (Brunswick 1979), nos. 31-38, pp. 106-110.

Provenance: 
- Possibly Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
- Probably Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753), Narford Hall, Norfolk, UK, circa 1720.
- Andrew Fountaine III (1770-1835) Narford Hall, Norfolk, UK, probably by descent.
- Andrew Fountaine IV (1808-1873), Narford Hall, Norfolk, UK, recorded in the 1835 inventory as being on shelf three in the ‘Octagon Closet’.
- Christie's London, 16-19 June 1884, lot 344, acquired by Martin Colnaghi.
- Bonhams London, 17 May 2006, lot 21, as attributed to the workshop of Virgiliotto Calamelli. (sold GBP 10.800,00) (link)
- Acquired from Rainer Zietz Ltd., London, UK.

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