Heliotrope salver with a tall foot
Ca. 1600. Enamel, Bloodstone, Gold Room 079BVessel made up of five pieces of heliotrope joined by five mounts. The body consists of an oval dish whose profile is an almost flat arch with a flange beneath the base. On the upper face is an indentation for holding an object. Inserted with a crosspiece is an enamelled gold structure with a design of pointed leaves, which joins it to the beginning of the stem, formed by two knops and a pyriform central piece assembled with two small mounts of leaves enamelled in white with black dots in decreasing size. A similar but larger mount joins it to the oval foot with denticulated bevel and support, decorated with an enamelled moulding.
The gold mounts, especially those on the base, are enamelled with designs in the style known as cosses de pois, or "pea pods", characteristic of late Mannerism. These are very subtle compositions based on small black marks rather like points and commas, derived from drawings of the pointed leaves published by Baltasar Lemercier in 1625, although the idea of sprinkling black dots over the white surface may come from the designs of Gilles L´Égaré for application on smooth enamel surfaces. This feature is appreciated more clearly on various other pieces in the Dauphin’s Treasure, such as O9, O10, and nos. 89 and 104 in Arbeteta’s catalogue, which were stolen in 1918. The same very common decorative pattern appears on several pieces in the Louvre, including the so-called Mirror of Maria de’Medici, MR 252.
Mentioned in the 1746 inventory of La Granja de San Ildefonso as a salvilla or salver, this is one of the few objects worthy of the name in the strictest sense, since the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language states that a salvilla should have a holder for the glass served on it.
The state of the work in the 19th century can be seen through the photography of Juan Laurent y Minier, "Coupe ovale jaspe sanguin transparent et serpentine commune, montures d’or et émail, XVIe siècle, règne de Charles IX", c. 1879, Museo del Prado, HF0835/19 (L. Arbeteta, in press).