Rare mid 19th Century Kilkenny Marble Tazza

Carved tazza of ovoid form with gadrooned bowl on wasted pedestal base.

Two later drainage holes have been added.

Marble tazzas were immensely popular in the early to mid-19th century. With the rise of Neoclassicism - inspired by the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome-such works appealed to the education and classical sensibilities of the Anglo-Irish elite. Victorian fashion leaned heavily on interior ornamentation: homes were filled with furniture, sculpture, and-to the modern eye-clutter. These pieces would typically have been placed in a hallway or on a sideboard, filled with foliage as a striking centrepiece.

Ireland at the time was a leader in the production of marble goods for both domestic and ecclesiastical settings. Workshops in Kilkenny, Dublin, and Galway exported their works widely, and several Irish manufacturers exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and the Great Irish Exhibition in 1853. Although unsigned, this piece could well be attributed to the workshop of Colles of Kilkenny, established in the 1730s and active well into the 1920s.

Provenance:
Purchased from a Private Collection in Ireland