Glass tankard with silver-gilt
mounts
From London, England, AD
1548-49
'à façon de
Venise' ('made in the manner
of Venice')
By the second quarter of the sixteenth century,
Venetian glassmakers had developed an entirely new type of
decoration, composed of opaque-white
lattimo
('milky') canes which are actually embedded in the
glass itself. In the simplest use of the technique
(a fili), white canes
are incorporated into the colourless body of the glass, forming a
series of parallel lines. In a more complex decorative scheme, the
plain white canes (a
fili) alternate with canes of twisted pattern
(a retorti). This
tankard features blue and white vetro a
retorti
The
decorative glass made in Venice and in northern Europe in the
‘façon de
Venise', was highly valued in England
from the mid-sixteenth century; a number are listed in royal
inventories, mounted in silver gilt. Although the technique of this
tankard is of Venetian glass, the form is derived from contemporary
northern European pottery, particularly of the type known as
'Malling' tankards. Documents record that in 1549
there were eight glassmakers from Murano (Venice) working under
contract in London: it seems likely that this is one of their
products.
A. Dawson, 'Recent acquisitions of Post-medieval ceramics and glass', Burlington Magazine-6 (May 1988)
L. Syson and D.F. Thornton, Objects of virtue: art in Rena (London, The British Museum Press, 2001)