Naples solitaire service in original box – £15,000 at Bonhams.
The services he designed were painted with views of Naples and scenes of newly excavated sites such as Herculaneum (1738) and Pompeii (1740).
It is likely that the print sources for the solitaire service, c.1785, offered at Bonhams’ (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) Grand Tour themed sale on July 14 come from the five-volume publication of the Illustrations de Voyages pittoresques de Naples et de Sicile of 1781- 86, by Jean-Claude Richard, Abbé de Saint Non (1727-91).
Detail from Naples solitaire service in original box – £15,000 at Bonhams.
The set, all with crowned RFR in red to the reverse, comes in its original leather case. It was estimated at £15,000-20,000 and got away on the low estimate.
Farnese service
Five Naples plates from the Farnese service – £17,000 at Bonhams.
Sold at £17,000 in the same sale was a group of five Naples plates from the Farnese service, c.1784-88. Each is painted in the centre with a circular titled view within a border of four oval cameo medallions inscribed Mvsea Farnesiano.
Recent research by Angela Caròla-Perrotti, author of The Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea (1771-1806) published in 2013, has shown that the service was owned by Giuseppe Beccadelli, Marchese di Sambuca (1726-1813) who was ambassador in Vienna for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and minister of state between 1776-86.
The service was the first to be produced at the factory featuring landscapes from Illustrations de Voyages pittoresques de Naples et de Sicile.
These five plates, estimated at £20,000-30,000, came for sale by descent from a European private collection where they had been since the 1980s.
