CALAMAIO CON PRESEPE, FAENZA, FIRST MIDDLE 16th CENTURY in modelled and polychrome painted majolica, 16.8x21x10.2 cm AN INKWELL WITH NATIVITY SCENE, FAENZA, FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY Provenance Florence, Elia Volpi collection; Florence, private collection Comparative bibliography C. Ravanelli Guidotti (ed.), La grazia dell'arte. Grimaldi Fava Collection. Maioliche, Milan 2019 pp. 72-75 n. 7 The inkwell is characterized by its tempietto form consisting of a portion of a vase cut and surmounted by a button socket, the inner walls of which simulate the celestial vault enclosing the depiction of the nativity scene. In the centre the Madonna in adoration of the Child, moulded larger than the other figurines, on the left the ox and the donkey enclosed in an enclosure, a shepherd with a bagpipe sitting on a stone accompanied by a sheep and behind him the ink pot, on the right Saint Joseph next to a small barrel. The back of the inkwell is painted with traditional motifs such as serpentines and flames, as well as a motif of concentric bands with small arches. The recent publication of a similar work has allowed us to recognise this inkwell in a period photograph referring to the second Volpi furniture (1920-1934) exhibited in Florence at the Museo della Casa Fiorentina Antica: our inkwell can be distinguished in a photograph in the Davanzati photographic archive (n. 1315), where among other things it is possible to see the absence of the knob and of the head of St. Joseph (now reinstated), but the presence of the head of the little sheep, evidently lost later.