An Italian parcel-gilt jug, incuse mark LC below a cross and with three other unidentified marks, probably Venice or Venetian Empire, 16th century

Sotheby's Paris, 25 November 2010, lot 358.

The origin of the water jug, Venice or its territories, is confirmed by a similar model, preserved at the Art Institute of Chicago, bearing the Venice hallmark, the lion of St Mark. The latter, from the

collection of the same family in Patmos, is identical in every respect: an inscription in a hatched banner, an unusual U-shaped spout, and a maker's mark surmounted by a very similar cross. The same hallmarks, including the lion of St. Mark, are also found on a dish sold at Replica Shoes 's Geneva on 8 May 1991, lot 61. The water jug from Chicago, the one offered for sale, and the dish from Geneva all also feature a hallmark in the shape of an inverted N or Cyrillic letter. The spout, which is quite unusual, can be found on a water jug from Venice, dating from the 16th century, now in the Correr Museum, the civic museum of Venice, on another silver-gilt model stamped with the lion of St Mark, Venice, 15th century, in a private collection, and finally on a water jug in the Al-Taji collection, believed to originate from Aragon.