Workshop of Della Robbia (Italian, 1399/1400-1482): A glazed terracotta armorial roundel
Florence, early 16th century
the sculpted tondo centred by a coat of arms on a blue Tuscan shield, within a wreath of fruiting vines, lemons and pine cones, with brightly glazed decoration bright turquoise blue, yellow, green and aubergine, 63cm diameter approximately
Footnotes:
Provenance:
Private Collection

Sotheby's, 20th December 1932, lot 32.
Sotheby's London, European Sculpture and Works of Art 900-1900, 13 December 2000, lot 30 (previously sold with a thermoluminescence analysis report from Oxford Authentication stating that the samples were last fired between 400-600 years ago, i.e. between 1400 and 1600).

The vibrantly coloured and decorated heraldic tondi produced by the Della Robbia family created an insatiable demand among the Florentine elite of the 15th and 16th centuries. The earliest of such roundels in glazed terracotta, were made around 1440-1445 by the founding father of the workshops, Luca della Robbia. His successors Andrea, and later Giovanni, continued to model these impressive status symbols for Tuscany's most noble families.

Related Literature:
A. Marquand, della Robbia Heraldry Princeton, 1919, p.15, fig.5