Giacinto Melillo

Giacinto Melillo (1846-1915); c. 1900
Two vessels and tray
Silver
Features punches: "G. Melillo / Napoli".
Measurements: 12 cm (cup height); 28 x 33 cm (tray).

Set of Neapolitan goldsmith work, made by Giacinto Melillo around 1900, deeply inspired by the models of classical antiquity reinterpreted under the historicist tastes of the end of the century.

The lot is composed of two cups or vessels and a tray. One of the cups is in the form of a bell-shaped krater, with an upper frieze profusely decorated with stylized palmettes, evoking ornamental repertoires with Greco-Roman roots. The second cup is distinguished by a deposit with a series of slanted gadroons. The cavetto-shaped neck gives way to a lip ornamented with a frieze of ovals, while the handle is topped with a female bust, and its handle is decorated with intertwined vegetal motifs.

The tray, for its part, develops its decoration in two concentric bands: an inner one of ovals and an outer one of braces. On the handles, two facing bird heads, oriented outwards, flank a palmette with scrolls.

Giacinto Melillo was the manager of Castellani's workshop from 1865 and is credited with making many of his most notable pieces of jewelry. By 1885, Melillo established his own independent business in Naples, creating classical revivalist pieces.