A high cup formed by an ancient fragment of serpentine and a foot and stem of heliotrope. The bowl, with a rectangular mouth, is joined by a ring mount and enamelled leaves to the balustroid stem, with a low knop between round brackets of enamelled gold. Oval in shape, it has a rounded profile and a rich openwork cluster of enamelled gold leaves. The enamels are opaque and consist of light touches of black and purple on a white ground. The mount belongs to the so-called “feuillages” type, of which there are plentiful examples both in the Dauphin’s Treasure at the Prado (O33, O35, O36, O37, O38, O39, O43, O44, O45, O46, O47 and O49) and in its sister collection at the Louvre (MR 187, OA 5379 and MR 466). Given the similarities between certain vessels and ornaments, it may be supposed that the same silversmiths worked for both Louis XIV and his son the Dauphin.

The vessel lost its handles, formed by two gold dolphins with coloured enamel, after the Peninsular War. It is impossible to make an adequate guess as to their appearance, since none of the old inventories describes them in detail, and we can do no more than imagine their volumes from the hollows they occupied in the case, which shows that they were positioned transversally, rose above the rim of the cup, and were inclined towards the interior.

The referents for this cup come from a fashion that reinterpreted classical models after designs like those of Pietro Cerini in Rome or Louis Rupert of Metz, who published a repertoire for various pieces of jewellery in Paris in 1668. The trend soon evolved towards more complex forms, such as the engravings of the monogrammist PC, active in Paris from 1672 to 1676, and especially the fantastic creatures of Hieronymus von Bömel. The Spanish jewellery of the turn of the century displays the almost exclusive influence of Cerini’s designs, applicable to chased metal, while the style of the other artists mentioned predominated in France, with a preference for enamelled surfaces.

The Museo del Prado has the photography by Juan Laurent y Minier Vase, prase avec pyrite de fer, montures d’or et émail, XVIIe siècle, règne de Henri IV, c. 1879. Museo del Prado, HF0835/14 (L. Arbeteta, in press).