THE ROTHSCHILD LAPIS LAZULI TAZZE' A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU AND LAPIS LAZULI FIGURALTAZZE THE LAPIS BOWLS EARLY 17TH CENTURY, THE FIGURES IN THE MANNER OF CLODION LATE 18TH / 19TH CENTURY in the form of a satyr and a Bacchante, both with grapevines in their hair, he with a horn and she with a tambourine and an ewer, each supporting a carved lapis lazuli stylized scallop shell shaped bowl, the Bacchante stamped with an inventory number '5236' (2) 36.3cm high, 15.2cm wide (max) Provenance Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918) the Bronzina Room, Halton House, Buckinghamshire Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942) Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009) The Trustees of Exbury House Literature Rothschild Archive, London, Manuscript: 000/174/C/3, Christie, Manson & Woods Probate Valuation of 'The Estate of Alfred C. de Rothschild, Esq. C.V.O. Deceased, Halton House Tring'. 1918. Listed as 'A pair of bronze gilt figures, of a satyr and bacchante, supporting on their heads shell shaped dishes of lapis lazuli, £35.0.0.' Catalogue Note These impressive lapis lazuli bowls, mounted with ormolu figural stands, follow in the grand tradition of objects made of hardstones for the courts of Europe. Lapis lazuli, is a metamorphic rock of deep-ultramarine colour, mainly composed of lazulite with golden pyrite. Lapis is the Latin word for stone and lazuli from the Medieval Latin, lazulum, which was taken from Arabic and Persian meaning 'sky' or 'heaven', so 'stone of the sky'. It has been prized since antiquity for its intense colour. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang and other mines in Afghanistan. By the end of the Middle Ages lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine blue pigment used by some of th most important painters of the Renaissance including: Masaccio, Titian and Vermeer. Pliny the Elder wrote that lapis lazuli is 'opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold'. Because the stone combines the blue of the heavens and golden glitter of the sun it was emblematic of of success in old Jewish tradition. It was used by Renaissance and Mannerist craftsmen for ornamental vases, for example the 'Lorenzo Vase' in the Museo degli Argenti made by Bernardo Buontalenti and Giovanni Biliverta. For comparable shell shaped bowls or coupes, see the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. Kunstkammer, 1617, the Musee de Louvre, Paris, inv. no. MR270 and the Museo degli Argent, Palazzo Pitti, Florence.