Master IO. F. F. (Giovanni Francesco Furnio?), Judgement of Paris, bronze plaquette, Paris seated on a rock beneath a tree presents the golden apple to Venus behind whom stand Juno and Athena and with Cupid flying above; in ex., IO F F, 57mm (Molinier 134; Bange 652-4; Kress 98, fig. 134; Bargello 129; Scaglia VI 11; Warren, Ashmolean 278-80; Warren, Wallace collection 41-43), pierced, an extremely fine contemporary cast with dark brown patina. Although a relatively common plaquette the present example is unusually fine and sharp. Many of IO. F.F.’s plaquettes were used to decorate arms, especially sword pommels so the likelihood is that their author worked in an arms-producing centre. Jeremy Warren in both the Ashmolean and the Wallace collection catalogues puts forward the reasons why he may be the Bolognese goldsmith Giovanni Francesco Furnio, whose skills were celebrated in an enconium written by the humanist Giovanni Filateo Achillini (see Wallace collection catalogue, pp. 168-79).

Estimate: GBP £2’000 - £3’000