Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Dish, maiolica, standing on a tapering footring, with curved sides to the well and a flared rim; painted in the well with a boar hunting scene, on the rim with two symmetrical series of grotteschi, at the top an impresa of burning asbestos above the motto ARDET AETERNUM, at the bottom the figure of Fortuna in a cartouche, on the reverse three pairs of concentric yellow lines.

This dish commemorates the marriage of Alfonso II d'Este (1533-1597), fifth and last Duke of Ferrara, to Margherita Gonzaga (1564-1618) in 1579. To mark the event Alfonso ordered one of the most spectacular maiolica dinner services ever made. Like this dish, each piece bears his impresa of burning asbestos - a symbol of undying love - and the Latin motto ARDET AETERNUM (‘it burns for ever’).