Agate tazza with gold sprays and rubies
1580 - 1620. Agate, Gold, Ruby.Room 079B
A vessel made up of a piece of whitish agate and gold mounts. The surface is covered by a grid-like pattern of plant stalks entwined with small leaves and flowers inset with ruby cabochons, all made in accordance with the Kundan technique of gold application. The low foot has grooves, probably made for fitting the mount, in this case of filigree on metal plate in two rows enriched with ruby cabochons. It has lost a fragment on the edge, which was already noted as missing by the Spanish Embassy in Paris in 1815. Numerous pieces are preserved with ornamentation resembling that of the body of this tazza, including three in the Al-Sabah collection at the National Museum of Kuwait, and one at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Numerous pieces are preserved with ornamentation similar to that found on the body of this tazza. Among them, as Arbeteta pointed out, are three very similar pieces in the Al-Sabah collection at the National Museum of Kuwait, on which the same technique may have been used for applying the gold. An analogous technique is also appreciable on the high-necked globular wine flask at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, made of jade with an overlaid network of leaves and flowers in a similar design, and also with inset ruby cabochons.
The Museo del Prado has the photograph by Juan Laurent y Minier, Tasse moresque agate, montres d’or et pierreries, XVIe siècle, règne de Henri II, c. 1879. Museo del Prado, HF0835/23.