Inkwell with a rampant lion

The three masks on the body of this inkwell, executed in an international Baroque idiom, could have been produced almost anywhere in northern Europe. A hole in the lion’s front right paw would have secured a quill. The inscription has the character of a vendor’s name, and there is something of an English feel to it. An example of this type is in the Museo Civico dell’Età Cristiana, Brescia, and another, listed with the New York dealer Anthony Blumka in 2018, has two masks.[1] Where the central mask appears on our inkwell, Blumka’s bears a separately cast, concave, undeciphered coat of arms.
-JDD

Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Allen, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.)


1. Nicodemi 1920, p. 473 (as Venetian, 16th century); Lion inkwell, Italy (Tuscany), ca. 1600, bronze, at http://www.blumkagallery.com/metalwork-1.