A glove tray formed by nine pieces of rock crystal and a framework of gilt brass. Rising around the sides of an elongated octagonal plaque are trapezoidal pieces of rock crystal assembled to form an octagonal mouth. The central piece has engraved decoration in a field marked out by lines running parallel to the edge. It consists of crossed patterns of foliate spirals and seeds, confronted in the narrowest parts, with two small baskets of fruit. At the broadest part, the spirals interlace to form ovals. The brim is also decorated with bezels and lines running parallel to the edges, and on the outer mouth with a border of concave ova with double darts. In the centre of each plaque is a tiny motif, alternately a rose or a cluster. Scattered around the piece are four insects.

The detail of the insects recalls the workshop of the Metellino family, like the other octagonal glove tray in the Dauphin’s Treasure, O107, whose quality, like that of this piece, is higher that that of the salver O108, although the insects are also the same as the ones appearing on the body of the dolphin at the Prado, O113.

Known in French as gantières, several of these glove trays were owned by both Louis XIV and the Dauphin. In Spain, where similar receptacles were used for depositing and presenting gloves, they were traditionally known as azafates. Such is the term used, as Arbeteta reported, in the Account of the Feasts and Obsequies offered to King Philip IV when he came to Sanlúcar, published by Fernando Guillamas in 1858. Listing the gifts made by the Duke of Medina Sidonia to his guests, the author describes the way they were presented: “in the [chamber] of the Infante, two azafates of openwork silver, with forty cordovans and fifty pairs of gloves, all in amber, covered with two green taffeta cloths.” In the chamber of the Count-Duke of Olivares, there was even a “large gold salver with crystal fittings, and with the arms of Guzmán engraved on it.” This recalls pieces O103, O104 and O105 of the Dauphin’s Treasure, and was possibly not much later than them.

Original state: Juan Laurent y Minier, “Plateau octogone, en cristal de roche taillé et gravé, montures de laiton. XVIIe siècle, règne de Henri IV”, c. 1879. Museo del Prado, HF0835/41 (L. Arbeteta, in press).