Heliotrope oval platter with octagonal tracery
Ca. 1610. Enamel, Bloodstone, Gold, Pearls, Silver gilt, Brass. Room 079BThe piece belongs to a set of two ewers with their platters (Dauphin’s Treasure, O24 to O27). The platter is formed by several trapezoidal pieces around a large central octagon, with mounting of the same type as the rest of the set. It preserves five pearls. The frame is similar to that of salvers O102 and O103 at the Museo del Prado, with resemblances in the interlaced double ‘t’ pattern and the ornamentation, and its form is combined with the central octagonal structure, as in the flat platters O106 and O107. All these pieces were made in Milan. There are pieces with similar decoration in Paris and Munich, also attributed to the Miseroni family. The decoration consists of overlays of enamelled gold with leaves, foliate flower motifs, and central eight-petalled rosettes. The enamelling is in opaque white, sky blue, red and black.
The state of the work in the 19th century can be seen through the photography of Juan Laurent y Minier, "Vase agate sardoine, montures d’or avec émaux et pierreries, XVIe siècle, règne de Henri II", c. 1879, Museo del Prado, HF0835/29 (L. Arbeteta, in press).
