Fig. 140.—Medicean Porcelain.
We engrave here ([Fig. 140]) a beautiful bocca, or pitcher, fifteen inches high, of this porcelain, which is in the collection of the Baron de Rothschild. The decoration resembles the style of maiolica known as Raffaelesque; the body is white and the painting of a light blue. The handle is a crown, formed by uniting those of the Medici and of Austria. The less beautiful pieces are described as “coarse, opaque, and of a bluish gray, the glaze thick and vitreous.” This china was something between hard and soft.
Whether this production of Italy is really porcelain, is open to doubt. M. Demmin, who is certainly entitled to great consideration, denies it very plainly. He states that the vase exhibited by M. Rothschild, in 1865, showed a break at the neck, and that the body was not porcelain, but a white clay—terre de pipe. He states, also, that the five pieces in the museum of Sèvres are not translucid, and have no signs such as mark the pâte tendre of France or Italy. English writers choose to class this under the head of porcelain, which seems, at least, to be very questionable. The two marks are:
The Duomo of Florence and the six pellets of the Medici.