A Venetian or façon de Venise small cruet, late 17th or early 18th century

Decorated with trailed and combed lattimo threads, the bulbous baluster form with a flared trumpet neck trailed with a vermicular collar in clear glass, the slender spout and double-scroll handle delicately ribbed, the handle with elaborately pincered ornament in clear glass, 9.8cm high

Provenance
Paul Gresswell-Wilkins Collection

Pieces with combed decoration presented to Frederik IV, King of Denmark, in 1709, now in the Danish Royal collection at Rosenborg Castle suggests a late 17th or early 18th century date for much glass decorated in this way. See Gudmund Boesen, Venetianske Glas på Rosenborg (1960), nos.86-90. However, as the combed glass at Rosenborg is all coloured it is just possible that examples in clear glass are slightly earlier. A very similar cruet in the British Museum (inv. no.1878,1230.285) is illustrated by Hugh Tait, The Golden Age of Venetian Glass (1979), p.83, no.128. Compare also to that illustrated by Anna-Elisabeth Theuerkauff-Liederwald, Venezianisches Glas der Veste Coburg (1994), pp.402-3, no.437 and the example in the Musée Ariana in Geneva (inv. no.13015) illustrated by Erwin Baumgartner, Reflets de Venise (2015), pp.205-6, no.97.