CIRCA 1800

A Doccia porcelain Trionfo, set with real coral branches and real porcelain shells, engraved with the Hapsburg Lorraine Arms of Tuscany, is illustrated by Trinity Fine Art, European Porcelain, Exhibition Catalogue, London, June 2007, p. 43, no. 15, where the conception of this Kunstkammer object is attributed to Carlo Ginori, founder of the Doccia factory. Ginori was greatly interested in the production and harvesting of coral (traditionally thought to be an antidote to poison) and established a coral manufactory at his villa near Cecina on the Tuscan coast, employing numerous workers and a fleet of coral fishing boats based based at Leghorn. He was intrigued by the possibility of combining coral with porcelain and had the factory prepare numerous plaques mounted with putti, holding an inscribed scroll, which were to be placed on the sea bed to see if coral encrustations would form on them. A surviving example, still with some marine encrustations, is in the British Museum (no. 1956,0704.1). See Trinity Fine Art, ibid., 2007, pp. 42-45 for a full discussion of this group of objects. The present lot represents a continuation of this fascination with marine flora and fauna.

A pair and another single example of the same form were sold from the Collections of Lily and Edmond J. Safra by Sotheby's, New York, on 8-21 October 2011, lot 971 (the pair) and 972.