Nove—Hard Paste.—Porcelain seems to have been attempted at Nove, near Bassano, in Italy, about 1752, by a man named Antonibon, who with his son afterward continued it till 1781 or later. Some elaborate pieces were made here, one of which we have taken from Marryat’s book, because it seems to possess, what so few do, excellence and originality. It is in the Reynolds collection in England, and is some twenty-seven and a half inches high—a superb piece of work ([Fig. 141]). The business passed into other hands, and after 1800 it gradually went to decay.
In 1825 it was revived by some descendants of the first Antonibon, who struggled on for ten years, but they could not sustain themselves against the capital, the clay, the brains, and skill of Saxony and Sèvres. They still make there, as they always did, maiolica, fine and common, and terraglia faience, in considerable quantities and of much excellence, called in France terre de pipe. This terraglia, it may be said, is a sort of demi-porcelain, being made of a mixture of the true porcelain clay and the native potter’s clay. It is susceptible of great precision of modeling and of a high finish, and some beautiful work has been done in it in Italy.
Fig. 141.—Nove Porcelain Vase.
The marks of Nove were usually a star or asterisk, with six rays; sometimes the letter N, or the word Nove, was added.