This is a family treasure brought from Spain. It has been in the family for many years, and has been passed on from generation to generation. The biggest plate measures 7 inches at it is called "La Gallina Ciega" (The Blind Chicken), it has a self protrait of the artist on the top, and the plate has four couples holding hands, while in the middle is a young man with a blindfold over his eyes. The second plate is 6 inches, and it is "The Knight fighting the Windmill and is being thrown off his horse, while Sancho Pansas watches in horror riding his donkey. The third plate is 4 inches and shows Mancha riding away from windmills along side of Sancho, it looks like the sun is settling over the horizon, the next plate in the collection is called "El Pelele (Goya), it is a carving of four virgins throwing a bounching a young man on a blanket. The next plate is Mancha riding proudly along Sancho in the mountains, and the final plate is also 4 inches and is named "La Vendimia" or the Market, the carving is of a rich couple and their young toddler buying some grapes from a woman who carries fruit in a basket over her head.
Dimensions
Acquired From:
Inherited
This is a set of vintage, mid 20th century, 1950’s tri-footed damascene plates in graduated sizes from Spain, with each plate depicting a scene from the story of Don Quixote, a famous Spanish novel, and others with likenesses of paintings by Francisco Goya (1746 -1828) a famous Spanish royal court artist. Damascene is the use of gold on metal, usually iron or steel, to make a picture. The metal is referred to as hierro dulce and the blackening of the surface is called pavonado. Although the gold is real, up to 24k, there is no longer a precious metal meltdown value as the cost to extract the gold would exceed the value of the amount extracted. These were generally made by artisans from Toledo, Spain and sold to the tourist trade. Matches to the largest plate have sold for as high as $150 and the average sale price is $85 for the larger plates. The smallest size plate sells for an average of $20. The estimate is for all the plates in the graduated sized set together and is based on actual past auction sales of comparables.
