A Doccia porcelain brown-ground portrait medallion of Ercole III d'Este, 1797

Dr. Andreina Torre, Zurich;

thence by descent until sold, Christie’s, London, 29 November 2011, lot 83.

This medallion of Ercole III d'Este (1727-1803) records the loss of some of his territories as a result of the French Revolutionary Wars of 1793-1814. Since 1896, an example of this model in the white, from the Franks Bequest has been in the British Museum, London, mus.no. Franks.472, illustrated in A. Dawson, 'Unexpected treasures - Doccia porcelain in the British Museum', Amici di Doccia - Quaderni III, 2009, pp. 23, 25, fig. 17. Like the present medallion, the example in the British museum bears the initials BM which Dawson mentions has thought to stand for Bartolomeo Manfredini, a medalist at Milan. A further example, similar to the present medallion with a brown glaze with gilt embellishments is in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, illustrated in L. Melegati, Le Porcellane Europee al Castello Sforzesco, Milan 1999, p. 80.