A Castel Durante ‘Bella Donna’ dish, circa 1530.

The dish features the bust of a woman with her head inclined to the left.

She is wearing a yellow head scarf and a brown dress with slashed bodice and a chain necklace. The scroll behind her is inscribed ‘Antonia Bella’.

The dish is mounted in a turned black painted wood frame; the reverse inscribed in the distinctive handwriting of Brownlow, 9th Earl of Exeter (1725-1793), with ‘Naples 1763’, diameter 23.5cm, depth 10cm.

The 1763 Burghley Inventory records:  ‘the bed chamber, 2’d George Room…….2 Old painted Dishes in Black Frames.’

REFERENCE: CER0701

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