Silver and Enamel Chest, c. 1550/1600

Not on View

Medium

blue and white enamel plaques and silver sheet over linden wood core; red satin damask lining

Dimensions

overall: 16.2 x 25.5 x 15.5 cm (6 3/8 x 10 1/16 x 6 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.195

Artists / Makers

Venetian 16th Century (artist)

Lombard 16th Century (artist)

Image Use

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Marks and Labels

white tag with red letters "N.o133"; label "(0-151)/Silver and Enamel chest/Venetian 1400/From the Trivulzio Collection/Milan/(C-1935) $AEVX.NX"; round ink stamp "R. UFFICIO ESPORTANZIONE D...FIRE..."(Firenze?); red wax seal "NAPOLI"

Provenance

Trivulzio collection, Milan;[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); purchased 26 June 1935 by Samuel H. Kress, New York;[2] gift 27 February 1950 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] The bill of sale from Contini Bonacossi (see note 2) is annotated "From the Trivulzio Collection, Milan."

[2] The bill of sale was for seven paintings and a number of decorative arts objects (copy in NGA curatorial files). The chest was described as "Venetian, 1400." A.M. Hind, in a 12 June 1951 letter to John Walker (copy in NGA curatorial files), states that Hind first heard (from Alfred Frankfurter, editor of The Art News) of the Trivulzio nielli, with which this chest was acquired, in Kress's hands in 1937.

[2] Deposition by Herbert L. Spencer, executive director, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 21 August 1956, in the secretary-general counsel's office files, National Gallery of Art, Kress no. 0-151.

Associated Names

Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Kress, Samuel H.
Trivulzio collection