Bronze mortar signed and dated: "Innocentius De Madiis fecit Brixiae" MDCC LXXV (Brescia, 1775)

Bronze mortar made with the lost-wax casting technique, decorated in bas-relief with plant motifs and bearing a cartouche, surmounted by a pair of musical cherubs, with the inscription "Innocentius De Madiis fecit Brixiae." Below the cartouche, in Roman characters, is the date MDCC LXXV, or 1775. De Madiis is one of the many surnames by which members of the Maggi family—an important Guelph family from Brescia—have been known since the 12th century. Our craftsman is Innocenzo Maggi, who, in 1794, together with a certain Gaetano Soletti, melted down the large bell of the Torre del Popolo in Brescia and used the metal to make the four bells that still exist today. On the side opposite the cartouche inscription is the name of the apothecary from Brescia for whom the mortar was made: Girolamo Simoni, as can be seen from a thorough search in the State Archives of Brescia, Superior Prefectural Chancellery, envelope 42. Measurements: base diameter 21 cm x upper diameter 37 cm x height 34 cm The work, like all our other objects, is sold with certificates of authenticity and lawful origin. We personally handle and organize the packing and shipping of artworks with insurance worldwide. If the work is purchased by non-Italian clients, it will require a certificate of free circulation. The gallery will handle the bureaucratic and economic aspects of this. All costs of the transaction are therefore included in the price. ABOUT INNOCENZO MAGGI AND HIS FAMILY MAGGI A family of bell founders who first appeared in Brescia in a policy dated 1721 with Giuseppe Maggi qd. Giuseppe, from Novara, living in Brescia in Contrada Strada Nova as a "pewterer." Contrary to what P. Guerrini suggests, the bell-founding activity of the Maggi family may have begun with the marriage of Felice q. Giuseppe to Maria Filiberti, from the family of renowned founders. The Maggi foundry was launched by Innocenzo (1726 – May 27, 1801), who had a tomb prepared for himself in the Santuario delle Grazie in 1795 but was instead buried in the church of S. Giovanni. He is responsible for the main bell, or the large bell of the Torre del Popolo or del Pegol (1794). In 1774–1776, he cast the bells of the parish church of Cortenedolo. He also cast the main bell of the Santuario di S. Maria dei Miracoli in Brescia. His sons Innocenzo junior (+ March 11, 1828) and Giuseppe (March 18, 1835) continued his work. The bell of Navono dates back to 1779, the concerto of Pezzoro to 1804, and the set of five bells of Polaveno to 1848. In 1857, Innocenzo Maggi presented a set of three bell towers at the Brescian Exhibition, which, according to Cocchetti, proved that "if we are far from having reached perfection in this art, we should not even be placed among the last." The Maggi family's activity died out around 1860. Guerrini writes that "almost all our bells of the first half of the nineteenth century came out of the Maggi workshop (at the Pallata)" large (like the large bell of the Tower of 1794) and small (like that of the parish church of Camignone, 1794, of the sanctuary of SS. Gervasio and Protasio of Bagolino, 1806).