Square-footed jasper cup with cameos
1687 - 1689. Agate, Chalcedony, Cowry, Enamel, Emerald, Jasper, Gold, Silver gilt, Ruby. Room 079BForming a pair with O39 of the Dauphin’s Treasure, this is a vessel with a bell-shaped body, gadrooned on the lower part, with green enamel leaves and an upper band of overlaid gold flowers in white, pink and black enamelling, with ribbons enamelled in translucent green. Inserted in this band are four cameos and two enamelled gold medallions of women in the French style. On the cover are six more cameos. The vessel has a square foot and two S-shaped handles decorated with rams’ heads. In the centre of the body, simulating the stone of the bowl, is a piece consisting of a thick quadrilobulate ring of jasper, with three emeralds alternating with three rubies along the centreline. The cover is crowned by an ornamented knob, entirely in silver gilt with appliqués of enamelled gold.
Hallmarks are visible on the interior of the cover and on the foot (crown, letters “IR” separated by a cross beneath a fleur-de-lys, and “A” with fleur-de-lys decoration) which possibly correspond to the Parisian silversmith Iean/Jean Royel. Two others on the inside of the cover are the charge and discharge marks of the fermier (assay master) Jacques Léger, active between October 1687 and December 1691.
The vessel has five cameos on the cover made of agate in various tones. They represent a black man with a lace collar; a child’s head; the head of a Roman crowned with laurel; Mars, Venus and Cupid; the bust of a woman; and another female bust. On the body are four male heads, three crowned with laurel, one of them bearded and accompanied by a female head, and one bearded with no crown. The first two are made of cornelian, the third of agate, and the fourth of chalcedony. Angulo is of the opinion that both this set of cameos and the remaining ones on vessel O39 date from about 1600, and that several were made by the same hand.
An emerald and a ruby are missing today from the central body. 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, HF0835/3 (L. Arbeteta, in press).