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Bowl
French (Dijon)
Medieval (Gothic)
second half of 14th–first third of 15th century
Object Place: Europe, Dijon, France
Medium/Technique
Silver and gilded silver (bowl: 94.4% silver, 3.9% copper, .9% gold, .8% lead)
Dimensions
Overall: 16.8 x 4.4cm (6 5/8 x 1 3/4in.)
Other (diameter): 16.8 cm (6 5/8 in.)
Other (diameter): 16.8 cm (6 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
1948 Purchase Fund
Accession Number48.264
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsMetalwork
DescriptionShallow bowl with circular indentation in base and gilded silver rinceaux applied with six rivets to the outer rim. The bowl is hammered and engraved; decoration is cast in one piece in the round and gilded. The rinceaux border consists of an alternating pattern of scrolls in opposite directions, each emanating from a tiny pine cone and a curled leaf; one scroll is filled with a five-petaled flower in three-quarter view and the other with a four-petaled rosette. The ends of the rivets on the inside are decorated with raised dots. On the underside is a mark in shield form comprising a fleur-de-lys and Gothic D in chief. The mark is overlapped by a larger shield engraved with arms, in which the darker tinctures are generally indicated by rough unsystematic hatchings.
InscriptionsEngraved on base: coat-of-arms of the Valois duke of Burgundy with Lion of Flanders on reverse. Armorial belonged to John the Fearless and Phillip the Good while they were duke of Burgundy and count of Flanders between about 21 March 1405 and 8 October 1430.
ProvenanceBy 1901, Montagu Samuel, 1st Baron Swaythling (b. 1832 - d. 1911), London; May 6-7, 1924, Swaythling sale, Christie's, London, lot 68. By 1930, William Randolph Hearst (b. 1863 - d. 1951), New York [see note 1]; from Hearst to the International Studio Art Corporation, New York [see note 2]; October 24, 1940, sold by the International Studio Art Corporation to the Brummer Gallery, New York (stock no. N4728); 1948, sold by the Brummer Gallery to the MFA for $3,000. (Accession Date: March 11, 1948)
NOTES:
[1] E. Alfred Jones, "Some Old Foreign Silver in the Collection of Mr. William Randolph Hearst," Connoisseur 18 (1930): 220-221. [2] The International Studio Art Corporation was a Hearst-owned company that had the responsibility of uncrating, cataloguing, storing, and shipping art objects Mr. Hearst had purchased.
NOTES:
[1] E. Alfred Jones, "Some Old Foreign Silver in the Collection of Mr. William Randolph Hearst," Connoisseur 18 (1930): 220-221. [2] The International Studio Art Corporation was a Hearst-owned company that had the responsibility of uncrating, cataloguing, storing, and shipping art objects Mr. Hearst had purchased.