[NUMBER 599] 599 BAISER DE PAIX WITH ROCK CRYSTAL MOUNTED IN SILVER-GILT ITALIAN, LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY Architectural in form, with two columns of rock crystal supporting a semi-circular pediment crested by silver-mounted agate vases and pyramids. The frame is of ebony and palisandre-wood, with mounts of silver-gilt, and rests on four rock crystal halls. On the sub-basement and in the arched centre are six rock crystal plaques, bevelled and enriched in eglomise with heightening of gold, with representations of the adoration of the shepherds and other incidents from the life of Christ and of the Virgin. The quality of the paint-ing is of the highest type of early miniature art, and justifies the attribution to Gianbattista Stefaneschi, the Florentine miniaturist of the late Renaissance. Height, 16 roches Described in « La Collection Spitzer », Paris, 1891, vol. 2, p. 64, No. 5. SALE, PARIS, 1893, CATALOGUE NUMBER 2092; Atlas, Plate LXI. [SEE ILLUSTRATION] 299
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