74 - A PAIR OF ITALIAN 'GRAND TOUR' BRONZE POMPEIAN CANTHARI (PEDESTAL CUPS), GIUSEPPE POLLICE FOUNDRY, NAPLES, LATER 19TH CENTURY

A PAIR OF ITALIAN 'GRAND TOUR' BRONZE POMPEIAN CANTHARI (PEDESTAL CUPS), GIUSEPPE POLLICE FOUNDRY, NAPLES, LATER 19TH CENTURY after the Antique, the bowls cast in high relief with centaurs and amorini, each with twin loop handles and short pedestal foot with border of heart shaped motifs, each inscribed to underside of foot 'G. Pollice Nap.' and affixed with a long screw to a square wood pedestal painted to simulate Siena marble, with brass liners, bronze 14cm high, 24cm high overall Provenance: Collection of Jeremy Mason, removed from Hoyles House, Wandsworth Modelled after a pair of 1st century CE silver Canthari (Kantharoi in Greek), part of a horde of silver discovered by William Zahn (1800–1871) in 1835, during excavations at a villa on the Via Mercurio in Pompeii. The original cups are at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples ( Inv.Nos.25376/7). Giuseppe Pollice (b.1833) operated a workshop known for Grand Tour souvenir bronzes, many of them inspired by artefacts at Naples' Archaeological Museum.