A group of four fine Italian micromosiacs, early 19th centur...

Hammer

£13,000

A group of four fine Italian micromosiacs, early 19th century and later set into a marble matrix; two rectangular examples depicting a group of fowl and an Italian greyhound respectively, an oval example depicting a pug and a circular example depicting a parrot in a chariot drawn by ducks; all within yellow metal frames; the mosaics measuring 7 x 4cm, 5 x 4cm, 4.5 x 4cm and 7cm diameter respectively as described; the rectangular backplate 15 x 14cm NOTE: The former example is after a work by Peter Wenceslaus (1742 - 1829), Maran Rooster and Hen, apparently held in the Nunziatura Apostolica in Rome, see Alfieri and Branchetti, I Mosaici Minuti Romani, Abete-Petochi, Rome, 1981, fig.116. The depiction of the birds and the arrangement of the chicks around the hen are extremely similar, but the relative positions of cock and hen are transposed. As for the amusing avine chariot group, antecedents can be traced back to the ancient world -a depiction of a grasshopper in a chariot being drawn by a parrot exists in a fresco in Roman Pompeii.