For making wares “all’ urbinate” (meaning probably with a white ground) the dug clay ought to be white, for if of a blue colour it will not take the tin glaze; this, however, is not objectionable if it is to be covered with a slip of “terra di Vicenza” (a white clay), a method which he terms “alla castellana.” But it is the reverse with the clay gathered from the beds of rivers, the blue in this case being of the better quality.
It is difficult for us now accurately to apply the names which he gives to the variously shaped pieces, and the more so, as we are informed that in our author’s time various names were attached by different artists and at different potteries to the same form. Thus the “Vaso a pera” was also known as “Vaso da due maniche” and “Vaso Dorico;” and the body of such a vase was by some made in one piece, by others in two or three, making joints at the lower part and at the insertion of the neck, and uniting them by means of lute (barbatina). Vases and jugs with pyriform bodies, moulded handles, and shaped spouts, or lips, were known as “a bronzo antico” (fig. 1), their forms, doubtless, being derived from the antique bronze vessels discovered in excavations.
Some of these pieces have a stopper fitting into the neck by a screw, the worm of which is worked upon it by means of a piece of wood (stecca) formed with projecting teeth, the interior of the neck being furnished with a corresponding sunken worm. The details of all these methods are illustrated on the third table of
Fig. 1. Fig. 2.
his atlas of plates. After telling us that the albarello (fig. 2), or drug pot, universally known under that name, is made of different sizes and always of one piece, our author describes the manner of
Fig. 3. Fig. 4.
forming the Vaso senza bocca (fig. 3), a sort of puzzle jug with hermetically fixed cover on the top and an opening beneath the foot, from which an inverted funnel rises inside the body of the vase. To fill it, the piece must be turned upside down and the liquid poured into the funnel below, and may be again poured out at the spout when required, in the ordinary way, the vase having been placed upright.
It is hardly necessary to give a list of different forms, but we may follow our author in his description of that set of five, or sometimes nine separate pieces, which, fitting together, form a single vase (fig. 4). These sets, known as “scudella da donna di parto” or “vasi puerperali,” were made for the use of ladies in their confinements, and consist of the following pieces:—(1.) The broth basin or Scodella, on raised foot. Over this fits the lid (2), which also does duty as a plate (Tagliere) for the roll or slice of bread; inverted over this is the drinking cup. (3), Ongaresca, upon the foot of which fits the salt cellar, Saliera (4), surmounted by its cover (5). The particulars of the arrangement of the nine pieces are not given. Single portions of these are to be found in collections, but the present writer is not aware of any one complete set having been preserved.