Grand Tour bowl of fruit motif micromosaic, guide €4000 at Peege.
Their speciality were micromosaics, using - the name implies - minute pieces of coloured glass to create compositions so fine that they were sometimes scarcely distinguishable from paintings.
The most popular motifs were views of ancient Roman monuments or St Peter’s Basilica; judging by the number of Pliny’s Doves on the market, the composition must have also been reproduced many hundreds of times.
Far rarer is a motif that is on offer at Peege in Freiburg in the sale of April 17-19, consigned by a private vendor. On a 5½in x 6in (14 x 15cm) base of black marble or polished slate there is a composition of late summer fruit, grapes, peaches and a cut lemon in a glass bowl. There is no indication of the maker; like most micromosaics there is no signature. This motif rarely turns up at sale.
An identical version, albeit with a round gilt-metal frame and a birch-wood surround, was sold at Sotheby’s in New York in October 2011 for $7000.
The example in Freiburg has a guide of €4000.
