A rare Doccia armorial beaker and saucer, circa 1745

The beaker decorated with an elaborate crowned armorial of the Gerini and Franceschi families, surrounded by scattered insects, the saucer painted with a vignette of a squash surrounded by butterflies and insects, wide gilt bands to the rims, the saucer: 12.5cm diam.; the beaker: 6.7cm high (2)

Two beakers from this service were sold in these rooms, 6 Jul 2010, lot 218, and are now in a private collection.

A teabowl and saucer from the service is illustrated in Andreina d'Agliano, Settecento europeo e barocco toscano nelle porcellane di Carlo Ginori a Doccia (1996), cat. no.42, where the author notes that the Gerini family commissioned several services from the Doccia factory. The Ginori-Lisci Archives show that crested porcelain of the period 1745-57 was produced for the Marchesi Giovanni and Andrea Gerini, gentlemen of Court. There is also a stencil-decorated plate with the Gerini and Franceschi family crest in the collection of the Palazzo Pitti, probably made for a marriage between the two families in 1745 (see Andreina d'Agliano, Le porcellane italiane a Palazzo Pitti (1986), cat. no.5).

The insects are heavily inspired by the well-known prints of Hoefnagel which circulated the factories of Europe at the time, and reflect the influence of the Du Paquier factory on the Doccia porcelain production of the earlier period.