- Museum number
- WB.31
- Description
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Painted Limoges enamel dish; copper, oval; obverse: The woman of the Apocalypse seated on an animal with seven heads stepping out of the water on to dry land; group kneeling in adoration, including a pope, two kings, a bishop, monk and cardinal; inscribed; reverse: inscribed; painted in semi-opaque enamels on a white preparation, translucent enamels over coloured foils and grisaille with pink-grey flesh tones; details produced by enlevage; highlighted with gilding, all on black ground.
- Production date
- 1570 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Length: 44.50 centimetres (inside rim)
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Length: 54.50 centimetres
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Weight: 2130 grammes
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Width: 30.50 centimetres (inside rim)
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Width: 39.50 centimetres
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Depth: 4.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Provenance: Sir Edmund Lechmere collection, exhibited by him at the South Kensington Loan Exhibition 1862 no.1852, subsequently entered the collection of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild.
Commentary: There are three other recorded versions of this dish in addition to the British Museum example. A similar basin in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden signed MC on the reverse (inv. no. III 8) with provenance information dating back to 1733, a version in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. no. 1942.9.291) which was once in the collection of Hollingworth Magniac and exhibited alongside the British Museum example in the 1862 SKM exhibition, and a further version was auctioned at Christie's London on the 8th December 2011 in sale 8009 (lot 90) and is now in the collection of the Museum of the Reformation in Geneva. At some point after the British Museum example entered the collection of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild it was repaired by the restorer Alfred André (1839-1919) who added a patch repair to one of the figures at the front where the enamel had degraded. The drawing for this repair survives in the archives of the Maison André in Paris. For the drawing see Thornton 2015, pp.120-125 and F.Barbe and O. Kurovets,"Le receuil de dessins d'Alfred André, une source unesimable pour l'histoire de la restauration des emaux peints de Limoges aux XIXe siecle" in Techne, no.42, 2015.
Bibliography: J. C Robinson (ed.), 'Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods, on loan at the South Kensington Museum', London, June 1862, no. 1852; Charles Hercules Read, 'The Waddesdon Bequest: Catalogue of the Works of Art bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, M.P., 1898', London, 1902, no. 31, pl. IX; O.M. Dalton, 'The Waddesdon Bequest', 2nd edn (rev), British Museum, London, 1927, no.31; Ulrike Weinhold, 'The collection of Limoges painted enamels in the Green Vault', in 'New research on Limoges painted enamels, Internationales Kolloquium, Braunschweig, 18-20 April 2002', Braunschweig, 2004, p.40; Dirk Syndram, Jutta Kappel & Ulrike Weinhold, 'The Baroque Treasury of the Grünes Gewölbe, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich, 2006, p.36; Ulrike Weinhold, 'Maleremail Aus Limoges Im Grünen Gewölbe', Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, 2008, p.131; Camille Grand-Dewyse, 'Émaux de Limoges au temps des guerres de Religion', Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2011, pp.402-408; Dora Thornton, 'A Rothschild Renaissance: Treasures from the Waddesdon Bequest', British Museum, London, 2015, pp.120-125, F.Barbe and O. Kurovets,"Le receuil de dessins d'Alfred André, une source unesimable pour l'histoire de la restauration des emaux peints de Limoges aux XIXe siecle" in Techne, no.42, 2015; A.Meek et al, "Technical examination of the Waddesdon Bequest", in The Waddesdon Bequest, a new look, eds, P.Shirley and D.Thornton, London 2017, p. 162.
- Bibliographic references
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Read 1902 / The Waddesdon Bequest. Catalogue of the Works of Art Bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, M.P., 1898 (31)
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Dalton 1927 / The Waddesdon Bequest : jewels, plate, and other works of art bequeathed by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild. (31)
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Scrase nd / Handlist (157)
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Thornton 2015 / A Rothschild Renaissance, Treasures from the Waddesdon Bequest (pp.120-125)
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Shirley and Thornton 2017 / A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum (p.57, p.70, p.71, p.74, p.159, p.162, fig.238a-d)
- Location
- On display (G2a/dc2)
- Condition
- Good
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Revelation 17
- Acquisition date
- 1898
- Acquisition notes
- This collection is known as the Waddesdon Bequest under the terms of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild’s will.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- WB.31
