Pantheon (2.1928 = Jg 1.1928)

coffee-pot in Mr. Leigh Ashton’s collection (fig. 3),
the arms on which I have identified as those of Car-
dinal Giovanni Francesco Stoppani (1695—1775),
who was made a Cardinal in 1753 and was Bishop
of Palestrina from 1763 until his death in 1775. The
British Museum containsfourspecimens ofthe same
type. One (fig. 4, right), a cup and saucer purchased
in 1927, bears the arms and motto of the Eng-
lish family of Hervey, Earls of Bristol, and was
probably made for George William, who was
second Earl from 1751 till his death in 1775. An
argument in favour of the Italian origin of these
pieces is furnished by the fact that he was envoy ex-
traordinary to Turin from 1755 to 1758, a period
during which this cup and saucer may well have
been made.
A cup (fig. 4, left), no. 449 of the Franks Collection,
was formerly held to be Venetian; it is painted with
a double coat of arms, abouth which there is some
divergency of opinion. The names of various Italian

families — Davia, Doria, Pisani — have been attached
to it in the past, but in Dr. Pazaurek’s view we have
here the arms of two South German families, Frey
or Dietrich of Augsburg and Baibus. He admits
however that the first coat may belong to the Italian
family of Robsbei, so that we must wait for further
evidence before we can estimate the true significance
of this piece. The reverse of this object exhibits the
work of a flower-painter, whose hand is also seen
on two cups (fig. 5), no. 87 of the Franks Collection.
These are of Meissen or Vienna porcelain and on
one side of each is a group of flower and fruit in
colours, on the other in gold the arms of Cardinal
Antonio Xaverio Gentili (1681 — 1753), who was
made a Cardinal in 1731 and by an odd coincidence
was also Bishop of Palestrina from 1747 until his
death in 1753. I suggest tentatively that these cups
were decorated and the three other pieces made in
some Italian factory as yet unidentified during the
decade between 1750 and 1760.


FIG. 6. INNERES DER SCHÜSSEL FIG. 2

343