{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O118400"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O118400/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PC1582/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PC1582/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PC1582","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1580","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1579","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1578","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1577","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1576","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1571","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1570","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1568","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AY2103","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC1583","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JV6820","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JV6832","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY7215","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY7190","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O118400/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O118400","accessionNumber":"M.237&A-1956","objectType":"Ewer and basin","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Ewer and basin sets were originally used for hand washing during meals.  The design of this ewer, however, is impractical.  It would have been impossible to use as a vessel due to its weight, its small foot and its awkwardly-placed handle.  Both the ewer and the basin are lavishly decorated with images of classical deities surrounded by strapwork patterns and embossed designs of fruit and foliage.  Heavy, elaborately decorated objects like these were not functional but were made solely for display and would have been seen at grand dinners held by fashionable Venetians.","physicalDescription":"Ewer, gilded silver, paired with a round, gilded silver, basin. The ewer and basin both embossed with images of three deities from ancient Greece and Rome, namely Juno (seated next to her symbol, a peacock, on the basin), Venus (with Cupid) and Minerva (in arumour, shield and helmet). Bolted to the recessed centre of the basin is a round medallion with two classical female figures supporting a plain oval shield. The urn-shaped ewer stands on a narrow foot, the handle incorporates the figure of cupid holding a thunderbolt and riding an eagle (thus aping the god Jupiter), while the neck and spout are in the form of a female figure who wears a basket-like crown with flowers and fruit, an allusion perhaps to the goddess Ceres.  ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Silver-gilt","id":"x37998"}],"techniques":[{"text":"raising","id":"AAT237068"},{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"},{"text":"chasing","id":"AAT54016"},{"text":"embossing","id":"AAT53826"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver-gilt, raised, chased, embossed and cast","categories":[{"text":"Ceremonial objects","id":"THES48981"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"},{"text":"Food vessels & Tableware","id":"THES48952"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2025PC1582","2025PC1580","2025PC1579","2025PC1578","2025PC1577","2025PC1576","2025PC1571","2025PC1570","2025PC1568","2006AY2103","2025PC1583","2017JV6820","2017JV6832","2018KY7215","2018KY7190"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"62","id":"THES49739"},"free":"","case":"CA12","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"62","id":"THES49739"},"free":"","case":"CA12","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Ewer","id":""}],[{"text":"Basin","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Venice","id":"x29237"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1580","earliest":"1575-01-01","latest":"1584-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Dr W.L. Hildburgh Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"43.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"ewer","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"18.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"ewer, including handle","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"16.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"ewer, of body","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"2.67","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"ewer","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"67.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"basin","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"7.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"basin","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"3.74","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"basin","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"on reverse: town mark for Venice","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"on reverse: maker's mark W and SB in monogram, unidentified","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Entered the Museum's collections as part of the bequest of the American-born collector, Walter Leo Hildburgh, in 1956. An almost identical copper-gilt ewer and basin (the subjects of the decoration are different) are in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, believed by Hayward to be by the same unknown goldsmith (see References).","historicalContext":"Before the second half of the 16th century when the use of personal forks at the dining table became widely established across Italy, dining could be a very messy affair. Although knives and spoons were in frequent use, forks were largely confined to the final 'banqueting' course, for eating sticky sweetmeats and fruits. As a result the ceremony of handwashing took on great significance. At the beginning and end of a meal, a ewer and basin were brought to the dining table by servants so that diners could wash their greasy hands from a basin replenished with flower-scented water poured from the ewer. Since basins were brought to each guest and appreciated at close range, they were often elaborately decorated. \r\nBy the time this ewer and basin were made most wealthy Italian households would have used forks on a regular basis for grand dining occasions, limiting the need for  handwashing. This pair was therefore probably made for public show, a demonstration of magnificence, rather than for use. This is also suggested by the top-heavy design of the ewer, rendering it impractical. The large size, gilding and fashionable hammered decoration of the pieces would have advertised to guests the wealth and taste of the owner. They would probably have been placed in a prominent position on a <font -i>credenza</font> (a form of dresser, often a temporary tiered structure erected for specific occasions) alongside other silver and silver-gilt vessels in the same room where the meal was taking place.","briefDescription":"Ewer and basin, silver-gilt, Italy (Venice), about 1580","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pazzi, Piero. <font -u>Introduzione al Collezionismo di Argenteria Civile e Metalli Veneti Antichi</font>. Pietas Julia Pola (Pula), 1993, pp. 54-5"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hayward, J.F. <font -u>Virtuoso Goldsmiths and the Triumph of Mannerism 1540-1620</font>. London: Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications Ltd., 1976, pp. 163, 371, plates 354-5"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Oman, Charles. <font -u>Italian Secular Silver</font>. London: HMSO for Victoria and Albert Museum, 1962, Introduction and plates 9-14. V&A Small Picture Book No. 57."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Oman, Charles. <u>Argenti italiani al Victoria and Albert Museum</u>. <u>In</u>: <u>Antichità Viva</u> VI.5 (1967), 43-53."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Patterson, Angus, <u>Fashion and Armour in Renaissance Europe: Proud Lookes and Brave Attire</u>, V&A Publishing, London, 2009, ISBN  9781851775811, p. 94, ill."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Paolo Veronese 1528-1588</u>. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Ed. by Enrico Maria Dal Pozzolo and Miguel Falomir. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2025."}],"production":"Hayward dates these to the early 17th century (see References) but subsequent opinion favours an earlier date.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"EWER AND BASIN\r\nSilver-gilt\r\nMarked with W and SB\r\nITALIAN (Venice); about 1580\r\nBequeathed by Dr. W.L. Hildburgh F.S.A.\r\nM.237&a-1956\r\n\r\nEwer and basin sets were originally used for hand washing during meals.  The design of this ewer, however, is impractical.  It would have been impossible to use as a vessel due to its weight, its small foot and its awkwardly-placed handle.  Both the ewer and the basin are lavishly decorated with images of classical deities surrounded by strapwork patterns and embossed designs of fruit and foliage.  Heavy, elaborately decorated objects like these were not functional but were made solely for display and would have been seen at grand dinners held by fashionable Venetians.","date":{"text":"22/07/2004","earliest":"2004-07-22","latest":"2004-07-22"}}],"partNumbers":["M.237A-1956","M.237-1956"],"accessionNumberNum":"237","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":1956,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Basin","Ewer"],"assets":["2019LN9113","2019LN7875","2019LU7584","2019LU7156","2019LU4831","2019LW3588"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-09","recordCreationDate":"2005-11-10","availableToBook":false}}