It is part of a major but one-off series painted by the Miotti family in the Al Gesu workshop from engravings by Luca Carlevarijs. They are most commonly associated with the celebrated collector Sir Horace Walpole, who had a set of 24 which were included in the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842, but his grand tourist
companions: John Chute and the Duke of Newcastle under Lyme, are also thought to have ordered sets.
This example is one of nine purchased from a contents sale at Clumber, the Newcastle family seat, by Messrs Rochelle Thomas and subsequently sold to a collector, an ancestor of the vendor. Phillips sold another example from the same source in 1998 for the same price.
Rare lattimo plate makes £36,000
This rare 9in (23cm) diameter Venetian lattimo glass plate of c.1741, with iron red decoration of the Piazetta at Venice led Bonhams’ May 22 Continental ceramics sale when it was bid to £36,000.
