A very rare Vezzi plate, circa 1725. Photo Sotheby's

painted probably by Duramano with archers hunting swans beside ruined building on the banks of a river, the rim with borders of cabochons and pearls in brown and gold, and halfovals in brown, green and gold, the reverse incised with A and N; 24.5cm, 9 5/8 in diameter. Estimate 30,000-50,000 GBP

PROVENANCE: Christie's Geneva, 16 November 1981

LITTERATURE: L.Melegati, Giovanni Vezzi e le sue porcellane, Milan,1998, n.78. p.208.

NOTE: Hitherto only one Vezzi plate has been recorded. A piece decorated in white and gold outlined in red and in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, is illustrated by Francesco Stazzi in Porcellane della casa eccellentissima Vezzi 1720-27.
The same subject as on the present lot occurs on a teapot, formerly in the collection of Sir Fairfax Cartwright sold in our London rooms on 17 June 1968, lot 162.
At the time Stazzi published his book, the Cartwright teapot was as yet unknown, and there are minor differences in the treatment of the subject between the Cartwright teapot and the present plate; the arch on the left is reduced to a single pillar and the figure and landscape on the right is entirely absent. However, the individual characteristics in the painting make it clear that it was the same hand in both cases.
The dish is exceptional for the dimension and the condition and freshness of the lively and bright palette. The decoration has been attributed in the documents of the Vezzi manufactory to the painter called Duramano whose name is mentioned.
The curious name of this artist could be a Venetian adaptation of the German surname of a painter active as hasmaler for the Meissen manufactory.
It is possible to select a group of Vezzi porcelain pieces which can be attributed to Duramano on the basis of a very similar polychromy, decorative motives on the borders and iconographic sources which refer to the fancy and fantasy world of the chioserie similar in style and taste to the lacquered decoration of the 18th century Venetian furniture.

Sotheby's. The Collection of Giovanni and Gabriella Barilla. Londres | 14 mars 2012