Plate thumbnail 1
Plate thumbnail 2
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Plate

1741 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
The plate is from a set of 24 that were specially commissioned by Horace Walpole from a Venice glasshouse as a souvenir of his visit in 1741. The plates, each of which was painted with a different view of Venice, were almost certainly never used, but were intended for display. By 1774 they displayed in Walpole's China Room at his villa at Strawberry Hill (near Twickenham west of London).

People
Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Orford and the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, was a noted author, wit, antiquarian, publisher, builder and designer; he pioneered the 18th-century Gothic revival in England and formed a remarkable collection of works of art and curiosities, which he displayed at Strawberry Hill. John Chute and the Earl of Lincoln, two of his companions in Venice, also ordered sets of these plates. The views are copied from prints by Antonio Visentini, after paintings by Canaletto, and from etchings by Luca Carlevaris. Prior to their publication, Visentini's prints were probably obtained for this purpose by Joseph Smith, a merchant and banker living in Venice, where he was later a British Consul.

Materials & Manufacture
This type of white glass, which is made opaque with an arsenic compound, was probably made in imitation of porcelain.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Enamelled opaque white glass
Brief description
Plate, Italy (Venice), made by the Miotti Glasshouse, 1741-1741, 5272-1901 .
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 22.5cm
conversion size only
Style
Gallery label
From a set of 24 plates painted with Venetian views made for Horace Walpole in Venice in 1741. The view here of S. Simone Piccolo is after an etching by Antonio Visentini.
Credit line
Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street
Object history
Probably made at the Miotti glasshouse, Venice, Italy
Summary
Object Type
The plate is from a set of 24 that were specially commissioned by Horace Walpole from a Venice glasshouse as a souvenir of his visit in 1741. The plates, each of which was painted with a different view of Venice, were almost certainly never used, but were intended for display. By 1774 they displayed in Walpole's China Room at his villa at Strawberry Hill (near Twickenham west of London).

People
Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Orford and the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, was a noted author, wit, antiquarian, publisher, builder and designer; he pioneered the 18th-century Gothic revival in England and formed a remarkable collection of works of art and curiosities, which he displayed at Strawberry Hill. John Chute and the Earl of Lincoln, two of his companions in Venice, also ordered sets of these plates. The views are copied from prints by Antonio Visentini, after paintings by Canaletto, and from etchings by Luca Carlevaris. Prior to their publication, Visentini's prints were probably obtained for this purpose by Joseph Smith, a merchant and banker living in Venice, where he was later a British Consul.

Materials & Manufacture
This type of white glass, which is made opaque with an arsenic compound, was probably made in imitation of porcelain.
Bibliographic references
  • R.J. Charleston, Journal of Glass Studies I (1959), pp. 63-82
  • Snodin, Michael (ed.), Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, New Haven : Yale University Press, 2009 p.334
  • Canaletto & Venezia (Milan: Museum Musei, 2019). p.324
Other number
- Glass gallery number
Collection
Accession number
5272-1901

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Record createdDecember 13, 1997
Record URL
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