10 - Rare jewelry box

Rare jewelry box Innsbruck Court Glassworks, 1570–1590 Glass rod, drawn glass, mirror, and fabric on a wooden core; metal (lock, hinge, and lid handle) H. 18 cm; L. 25 cm; W. 16 cm Provenance: Private collection Condition: On the front, lid, and sides: minor damage (a few broken glass rods that have been reattached). On the back: missing pieces and damage in the upper left section, and missing spiral motifs. Inside: wear on the red silk; the tin backing of the mirror has peeled away; damage and missing sections in the lampwork glass scenes, particularly on the figures, one of which has only its legs remaining. The wooden structure of this box is entirely covered with twisted, gilded glass rods; flat black, white, and blue glass strips; and lamp-worked gilded glass spiral ornaments. Inside the lid, on either side of a mirror, is a botanical landscape featuring a lampwork glass figure affixed to a red silk background. The right panel of the box slides off to reveal a “secret” drawer, the bottom of which houses a ring display. This work is characteristic of the compositions produced by the Innsbruck court glassworks (Hofglashütte) in Tyrol, such as those preserved in the collections of Ambras Castle, the residence of Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol (1529–1595), and which were already listed in the inventory drawn up in 1596 (fig. 1). Ferdinand had established a glassworks at Ambras, active from 1570 to 1590, where he employed Venetian artisans from Murano after obtaining special permission from Venice. The presence of master glassmakers Pietro dell’Orso, Salvatore Savonetti, and Andrea Tudin is documented there between 1571 and 1575. They introduced the technique of lampworking and had glass rods imported directly from Venice. Jewelry boxes made using this technique that have survived to the present day are, however, extremely rare. A large example is housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (inv. C20-1923), while another is depicted in a painting by Frans Francken II held at the Louvre (inv. RF 1535; fig. 2). Another example is a small box exhibited in 2017 at the Galerie Sylvie Lhermite-King as part of the exhibition “Spun Glass from the 16th to the 21st Century” (exh. cat., pp. 10–11; fig. 3).