is a large dish, very elegantly ornamented, probably made about 1540. The reverse of the dishes generally have a belt of foliated sprays round the rim, and radiating flutings or alternating thin and thicker lines round the “cavetto.” It is worthy of remark that some of the Paduan wares are similarly ornamented, and we may thence infer some connexion between the establishments or an attempt at imitation; the fact that a cross was adopted as a mark at both places is also noteworthy.
The Venetian wares of the last century which, without positive proof, are generally believed to have been produced by the Bertolini have also distinctive qualities. They are remarkable for their thinness and lightness; baked at a high temperature, they are almost as sonorous as metal; the ornamentation round the rim is frequently executed in rilievo, and they have been mistaken for enamelled copper with repoussé flowers, &c. The colours used were generally blue and brown, with yellow occasionally, on a pale blue or dull white ground.
We must refer to the large catalogue of the collection of Maiolica at South Kensington, for notices of the less important establishments at Treviso, Bassano, Padua, Verona, and some other towns: as also at Milan, Turin, and Naples. In the last city, at the royal fabrique of Capo di Monte established in 1736, several varieties of fine ware were made, from a beautiful artificial porcelain to a faïence of high quality, of which, however, little seems to have been produced.
In every large collection pieces will be found for which it is not easy to assign any place as the fabrique at which they were produced. The very interesting piece (in the woodcut p. [185]) at South Kensington, no. 2562, is an example: it is of early date, and a certain oriental character about the design would suggest the influence of Moorish potters. Another such example is the dish, no. 2593, of the fifteenth century and probably of Tuscan origin; we give also a woodcut of this.
THE END.
INDEX.
[A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [R], [S], [T], [U], [V], [W], [X], [Z]