Amethyst bowl

The lobed foot and articulated stem are carved from a single piece of amethyst, attached by a silver-gilt mount to the amethyst bowl. Turquoises and white enamelled flowers with emerald foliage adorn the lobes of the bowl. A relatively large number of such cups in amethyst and lapis lazuli were kept in treasuries belonging to European monarchs and aristocrats in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One piece which formerly belonged to the celebrated Medici collection is today in the Pálazzo Pitti, Florence.