Rectangular with molded rims, center upright divides box further divided at one end for ink. Top partly enclosed over end with portraits of man and wife and medallion of clasped hands with inscription in center. Stylized pattern on ends, floral scrolls with medallion portraits at sides.
Inscription
IO.TE.DO.LA.MANE/DAME.LA.FEDE
Provenance
Probably until 1869, Vittorio Emanuele Taparelli, Marchese d'Azeglio (b. 1816 - d. 1890), Turin; 1869, sold, probably by the Marchese d'Azeglio in Paris, to Friedrich Moritz Gontard (b. 1826 - d. 1886), Frankfurt; by descent to his son-in-law, Richard von Passavant-Gontard, Frankfurt [see note 1]; 1929, still in Passavant-Gontard collection. Jakob Goldschmidt (b. 1882 - d. 1955), Berlin and New York; 1956, consigned by the estate of Goldschmidt to Raphael Stora, New York (stock no. C-142-11); 1956, sold by Stora to the MFA for $1,800. (Accession Date: May 10, 1956)
NOTES:
[1] The provenance (to 1929) is provided in "Sammlung R. von Passavant-Gontard," (exh. cat. Städel, Frankfurt, 1929), p. 45, cat. no. 208. The inkstand is said to have been acquired in Paris in 1869. The Marchese sold parts of his collection of Italian porcelain and glass in London and Paris that year.
