For five generations, our family has been working in the world of antiques and art in Milan, continuing a business started in 1860.
In 2013, we chose to reshape this history by moving to our studio at Via Della Spiga 42.
Our research focuses on Italian art from the 16th to the 20th century, with a predilection for collectibles, majolica, and scientific instruments.
We are members of the Milanese Antique Dealers Association, the Italian Federation of Antique Art Dealers, and the Italian Antique Dealers Association.
Majolica inkwell
Workshop of Virgiliotto Calamelli (attr.)
Faenza, second half of the 16th century
Height 11 cm; length 20.5 cm; depth 7.5 cm
Weight: 363 g
Condition: Some chipping on the upper part of the mask on the mouth. The handle is glued, without additions; minor chipping in some
highlighted areas.
The object is shaped like a foot wearing Greek-style footwear, which is recognizable in some highlighted areas. The foot is anatomically modeled with exposed toes, while the ankle is partially covered by a sock, and the heel features a small circular handle to support the object.
The mouth of the container is plasticized in the shape of a mask. The interior, completely covered in enamel,
suggests that the work was intended to be used as an inkwell or otherwise to hold a liquid. The base is unglazed.
The pictorial decoration, rapid and cursive, is limited to quick shadings of cobalt blue between the toes, more carefully highlighting the nails, accompanied by highlights of citrine yellow to enhance the shapes. The mask is painted with a brush tip, marking the eyes with nervous strokes and highlighting their profile, while
thin yellow-orange lines line the inside of the mouthpiece.
This decoration has been called “compendiaria” since the Renaissance and characterizes the production period that, from the mid-16th century until about the middle of the following century, decisively influencing taste: from the polychrome style of historiato, it transformed into a renewed style that “compendia” the ornamentation of the works in a few colors, leaving greater emphasis on the forms, often inspired by metallic examples.
Trompe l’oeil crescent-shaped majolica flower vases
Pasquale Rubati Manufactory
Milan, circa 1770
12 x 12.8 x 22.2 cm each
Condition: intact with slight chipping
Rare examples of “crescent-shaped” flower vases produced by Pasquale Rubati, a refined painter who opened his own factory in Milan in 1756, competing with Felice Clerici.
These vases, with their complex yet original and practical shapes, were used to hold flowers, creating an orderly composition. Since they could also be hung against a wall, they went beyond simple centerpieces
to provide a functional and decorative setting.
The majolica is decorated with a raised rocaille motif adorning the edges. The upper tiers are perforated with oval holes to hold and support the radially arranged flowers. The mold, listed in the original inventories as “crescent-moon flowerpots,” was famously used by 18th-century Milanese manufacturers, as evidenced by some of the examples preserved at the Museum of Applied Arts at the Sforza Castle in Milan. (For comparison, see Ausenda R. (ed.), Museums and Galleries of Milan. Museum of Applied Arts. Ceramics.
Second Volume, Milan 2001, pp. 425, nos. 409 and 41.)
The polychrome decoration features two medallions painted in green with figures of wayfarers, joined by garlands of tiny flowers. The wayfarers and ruin-style architecture are set within a symbolic landscape, outlined with a brush tip in manganese brown and shaded with more pronounced brushstrokes and a blotchy veil of the same green as the background.
Majolica round bowl
Duchy of Urbino, Casteldurante or Pesaro, 1533-1555
Dimensions: diameter 19 cm, base diameter 7 cm, height 2.6 cm
Weight: 307 g
Condition: Useful chipping along the rim and a through-glaze. This small dish or round bowl has a deep hollow, oblique brim, a rounded rim, and a slightly raised ring base.
The small plate or tondino has a deep hollow, oblique brim, rounded rim, and a slightly raised ring foot. The decoration features, around the rim, a garland of small lanceolate leaves outlined in brown, while the brim is richly decorated with the white-over-white technique, which involves a dense decoration of leafy spirals, outlined in tin white directly on the glaze.
Inside the hollow, in a hilly landscape with a sunset sky, stands out a framed shield with the bipartite noble emblem of the Mazza family of Pesaro, surmounted by the letter “M” and flanked by the initials “G” and “P”.
The technique used here in decorating the brim is extensively described by Cipriano Piccolpasso in his book, dated around 1557, Li tre libri dell’arte del vasaio (The Three Books of the Potter’s Art), which refers specifically to an Urbino tradition: in the chapter on White Overlays, the author says “this is an Urbino custom.”
Pocket Globe
Nathaniel Hill
London, 1754
The globe is in its original case.
There are slight cracks in the original paint on the sphere. The case no longer closes. The sphere measures 6.8 cm (2.6 in) in diameter and the case 7.4 cm (2.9 in) in diameter. The globe is composed of twelve printed paper spindles, juxtaposed and glued to the sphere.
The North Pacific Ocean bears a cartouche with the inscription: “A NEW terrestrial GLOBE by Nath. Hill 1754.” The celestial globe is depicted inside the case.
The terrestrial globe shows much of central and southern Africa empty. North America bears only the names of a few British colonies. It shows California as a peninsula and the northwest coast of America as
“unknown parts” (Alaska is not described and is only partially delineated; it became part of the United States in 1867). Admiral Anson’s route (1740) is charted, and the trade winds are indicated by arrows.
Part of the western coast of Australia, still called New Holland (the new name would be introduced starting in 1824), is charted. (See Van der Krogt, P., Old Globes in the Netherlands, H&S, Utrecht 1984, p. 146 and Van der Krogt, P. – Dekker, E., Globes from the Western World, London 1993, pp. 115.) Nathaniel Hill (London, recorded between 1746 and 1768) had impeccable professional credentials: he had served an apprenticeship with Richard Cushee, who at the time was surveying for John Senex’s map
of Surrey. Hill himself later began conducting geographical and topographical surveys, working in Yorkshire, the Fens, and around London.
In 1783, John Newton, to publish a new pocket globe, reused Hill’s copper plates, updating them with new geographical discoveries, changing the date, and replacing the old name with his own. (See Van der Krogt, P., Old Globes in the Netherlands, H&S, Utrecht 1984, p. 146 and Van der Krogt, P. – Dekker, E., Globes from the Western World, London 1993, pp. 115.)
There is clearly a strong connection between surveying, mapmaking, globemaking, and engraving. Hill was involved in all three. Surprisingly, few of Hill’s globes survive.
