A VENETIAN ENAMELLED AND GILT GLASS PILGRIM FLASK, PROBABLY EARLY 16TH CENTURY |

of flattened form with a bulbous lower section, the sides affixed with two gilt-glass loops, decorated with two large gilded medallions simulating lappets embellished with red, green and white enamel dots connected by a horizontal gilded strap, a gilt-scaled band edged in white enamel dots at the rim, foot and shoulder, the later with radiating flames, on a spreading foot with gilded folded rim, with a later chained metal cover,

In overall good appearance. The glass is intact. There is some scattered wear to the gilded decoration. One central gilded medallion has some wear. The interior could benefit from professional cleaning.
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Pilgrim in flasks in silver provided the models for such 'inghistera fracade', [flattened bottle] flasks made in maiolica and glass in late 15th century Italy. The gilded decoration imitates the leather or gilt-metal strap work used to mount such flasks. Dwight P. Lanmon discusses the use of ray or flame decoration on a glass goblet in the Robert Lehman collection in the Metropolitan museum and suggests it perhaps derives from radiance typically seen in the depiction of the Mother and Child.¹ 

A very similar example with only slight differences in the decoration was in the collection M. Émile Gavet, sold at galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 31st May-9th June 1897, lot 590.² Of the recorded examples in museum collections similar 'ray' decoration though in blue and red enamel like the Lehman goblet, is used on a pilgrim flask in the British museum, reg. no. 1880,0701.4.³ Two flasks with close decoration of large gilded medallion of this kind are in the collections of Waddesdon manor and Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire.⁴ For further reading on Venetian glass pilgrim bottles see the recent paper by Rosa Barovier Mentasti, et al., 'Dating the Venetian Rovere Flask at The Corning Museum of Glass and Other Flasks', Journal of Glass Studies, Vol. 58, 2014, pp. 171-184.

<sub>1. Dwight P. Lanmon, Glass in the Robert Lehman collection, XI Glass, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, p. 14, no. 2.
2. A photograph showing the flask is reproduced by Erwin Baumgartner, Venise et Façon de Venise, Verres Renaissance du Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Les Arts Décoratifs, 2003, p. 15.
3. Hugh Tait, The Golden Age of Venetian Glass, British Museum, 1993, p. 32, no. 11, col. pl. 7. 
4. Sir Antony Blunt (ed.), The James A. De Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor, Glass and Enamels, Fribourg, 1977, pp. 91-93, no. 17; Anne-Marie Berryer, La Verrerie Ancienne aux Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, 1957, pp. 18-19, pl. viii.</sub>