This Florentine porcelain is especially rare; scarcely thirty examples being known to exist. Three of these are at South Kensington, and one is in the possession of the present writer. It is of value to our subject, not merely as an important episode in the narrative of the rise and progress of ceramic industry in Italy but from its exceptional nature, as one at least of the specimens was decorated by an artist whose handiwork is to be recognised upon pieces of the Urbino enamelled earthenware. The fine “Brocca” 15 inches high, belonging to the baron Gustave Rothschild, is surmounted by an elegantly formed handle springing from grotesque winged masks, modelled in relief. The body is decorated with two belts of grotesques, divided by a narrower one, on which are masks and scroll ornaments; beneath these is a band divided into arched panels or compartments, in each of which is a flower in somewhat Persian taste. These grotesques are executed with great freedom and force and at the same time with a careful finish and delicacy, and in the manner of an unknown painter who worked at the botega of Camillo Fontana.
It remains to us only to notice the productions of the present day, many of the more meritorious of which are only imitations (in some instances, we regret to say, produced for fraudulent purposes) of the more excellent works of an original period of art: and to give some account of the mode of manufacture, the forms and uses of the pieces, and the manner of their decoration.
The first successful attempt at re-producing the Italian enamelled pottery of the renaissance from original models was, we believe, made at Doccia (the manufactory belonging to the Marquis Ginori) near Florence. The greater number of these pieces were ordered by an unprincipled dealer of that city who supplied the models, and by whom and his agents they were more or less scratched, chipped and otherwise “doctored” to look old, and so imposed upon unwary purchasers at high prices. The writer recollects some of these specimens which were, years since, offered to him at Leghorn by an English tradesman of position (himself possibly deceived), to which a family history had been attached, their reputed owner (it was said) being under the necessity of parting with them. Since that period the productions of Doccia have improved, the lustre pigment has been re-produced, and these revivals have been justly admired at various international exhibitions of art and industry as legitimate works of the manufactory.
But a still better imitation of the metallic lustre of Gubbio has been produced by an artist of that city; and at Siena some excellent copies of tiles and other pieces have been made; so also at Faenza. Bologna, too, has made copies of the rilievos of Della Robbia which, like those produced at Doccia, may be purchased new of the makers, or found, scratched and dirty, in various curiosity shops throughout Europe, ready to pass for old, some of the worst being occasionally signed as by Luca to enhance their interest. It is to be regretted that a few of these forgeries, as well as admirably executed terra-cottas, have found their way into public museums under a false passport.
At Naples reproductions of the wares of Castelli are well executed.
In France the excellent reproductions of Persian and Rhodian wares by Deck, and some good imitations of the Italian enamelled and lustred pottery by various artists; and in England the pieces produced by Minton, Wedgwood, and other manufacturers, have led to modifications and adaptations, resulting in an important development of this branch of artistic pottery.
CHAPTER VI.
We are fortunate in possessing a manual of the Italian potters’ art of the sixteenth century, in the manuscript by the “Cavaliere Cipriano Piccolpassi Durantino,” as he signs his name on the title page of his work. Nearly all the information on this branch of the subject, conveyed to us by Passeri and subsequently by Sig. Giuseppe Raffaelli and other writers, has been gathered from that manuscript written in 1548. We think we cannot do better than go at once to this fountain head, and epitomize the information it conveys, upon the manner and materials, upon the forms and decoration, of maiolica.
After a “prologo” in which the author defends himself from the invidious remarks of others, he tells us how the earth or clay brought down by the river Metauro was gathered from its bed during the summer when the stream was low, and by some was made into large balls, which were stowed in holes (terrai) purposely dug in the ground; by others it was previously dried in the sun; here it remained to mellow and purge itself from impurities, which otherwise would be injurious. This same method of gathering the material for the foundation of the wares was adopted at many other places. At Venice the earth of Ravenna and Rimini is worked, although they frequently use that dug at Battaglia, near Padua, but for the better sort that of Pesaro.
Our author enters into further details of the method of gathering the potters’ clay where there are no rivers, by digging a succession of square pits connected by a channel in the depressions between hills, into which the earth, washed by showers of rain, is refined in its passage from pit to pit. For inferior wares the earth is then collected on a table and well beaten with an iron instrument, weighing twelve pounds, three or four times, being kneaded with the fingers as a woman would in making bread, and all impurities carefully removed. Afterwards it is formed into masses, from which a piece is taken to work upon the wheel or press into moulds. If the earth is too “morbida” it is placed upon the wall or house top, on sieves, through which it is washed by the rain, and gathered in old broken vases, &c., placed beneath.