Grand Tour, Finely-carved abaster Model of Baptistry, Pisa, ca. 1820, Inscribed

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About the Item

A large, signed, Alabaster Grand Tour model of the Baptistry of St. John’s at Pisa, Italy, circa 1820. Two types of Volterran Alabaster, 8-1/2”. Retailed by John Mawe, London, 1820s. John Mawe (1749 – 1829), who retailed this very Fine Italian alabaster model of Pisa’s Baptistry from his London shop at 149 The Strand, was a well-known mineralogist in the first part of the 19th century. Though his trade centered on the sale of exotic, imported stones, he also offered less scientific goods. Among these were a line of architectural models, including Egyptian obelisks made of a distinctive English store – Derbyshire Black Marble; various Roman monuments, in Italian stores; and the three principal Pisa Landmarks, Cathedral, Baptistry and Leaning Tower, fashioned in alabaster from nearby Volterra. For the very frugal London traveler, it was no longer necessary to visit a place in order to have a first rate souvenir of it. It is likely that Mawe contracted with a Pisan entrepreneur, perhaps Enrico van Lint, to arrange local fabrication and export of this last group of models. Alabaster has been quarried at Volterra, a short journey from Pisa, since the Etruscan era. A popular misunderstanding is that this stone is always brilliant white. In fact, there are alabasters in dozens of different hues with a like number of distinctive patterns and mottling. This stone, though, is not a marble and is too soft to be polished to a high luster. To overcome this, clever finishers have long resorted to ingenious polishing compounds to simulate marble’s sheen. To the front of this model’s base, on the band of swirling, medium brown alabaster is inscribed “Battistero di Pisa”, encircled in a ring of leafy ornament. Below this, the thin, white alabaster band reads “Mawe 149 Strand.” It is not clear that the two inscriptions are in the same hand, and it may be that Mawe’s name was added only after the model arrived in his shop. The model’s architectural rendering of the Baptistry is both precise and very Fine, with rows of almost unimaginably narrow columns defining the upper windows and lower arcades, a fragile, nearly two hundred year old object, remarkably intact.

Creator:
John Mawe (Maker)
Dimensions:
Height: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Width: 6 in (15.24 cm)Depth: 6 in (15.24 cm)
Style:
Grand Tour (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Alabaster,Carved
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1820-1829
Date of Manufacture:
1820
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Repairs.
Seller Location:
Lafayette, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU114322774712

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