Soup Plate thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 139, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

Soup Plate

ca. 1790-1820 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Soup plate of hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded. In the middle is a landscape with a girl standing behind a broken classical column. The rim is edged on the inner side with a gilt wreath and on the outer with a border of small oval compartments in gold, each enclosing a blue dot.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded
Brief description
Plate of tin-glazed hard-paste porcelain, Doccia porcelain factory, Doccia, ca. 1790-1820.
Physical description
Soup plate of hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded. In the middle is a landscape with a girl standing behind a broken classical column. The rim is edged on the inner side with a gilt wreath and on the outer with a border of small oval compartments in gold, each enclosing a blue dot.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 23.8cm
Gallery label
Soup Plate Porcelain ITALY (DOCCIA); late 18th century J. C. Joicey Bequest C.1723-1919 (Label draft attributed to John V. G. Mallet, ca. 1995)(ca. 1995)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Mr John George Joicey
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
Frescobaldi Malenchini, Livia ed. With Balleri, Rita and Rucellai, Oliva, ‘Amici di Doccia Quaderni, Numero VII, 2013, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection’, Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, 2014 pp. 102-109, Cat. 100 100. Soup dish with a peasant woman in a landscape 1790-1820 hard-paste porcelain with tin-glaze painted in colours and gold diam. 23,5 cm no mark inv. C.1723-1919 bequest: Mr John George Joicey Bibliography: unpublished A series of four plates and a soup dish with a decoration of rural landscapes in polychrome and gold, probably that referred to in the documents as “a paesini”, or “a paesini con figure”, in the registers of the Museo di Doccia (BALLERI 2013, p. 60). The rim is decorated with a series of circles with dots in the middle which was called at Doccia “a ova tagliate” (sliced eggs). The central decoration was inspired by engravings of landscapes by artist mostly from the Veneto region, like those based on paintings by Giuseppe Zais, Marco Ricci and Francesco Zuccarelli, which the artist at Doccia used for some of the figures. This type of decoration was very successful and was used for complete services of tableware, coffee and tea sets (GINORI LISCI 1963, fig. 61; A. d’Agliano, in LUCCA E LE PORCELLANE 2001, cat. 110). In the past these sets were dated to the years from1770 to 1800, probably on account of the fact that the rim decoration with “uova tagliate” was derived from Sèvres which started producing porcelain with this type of decoration about 1770 (ROTH, LE CORBEILLER 2000, cat. 137-138). On the basis of recent research in the archives at Doccia, it seems more likely that the motif began to be used by Ginori between 1790 and 1820. If this kind of decoration is correctly identified as that called “a paesini”, or “a paesini con figure”, as is extremely probable, the artist who painted them was almost certainly Ferdinando Ammannati, as recently suggested by Rita Balleri (BALLERI 2013, p. 60-61), at least for the finest pieces. A decoration similar to this one was also used at the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea in Naples where Ammannati worked before coming to Doccia, but it included only the scenes of Naples and Campania (REGIONE CAMPANIA 1995) made from 1793-1795 for the Servizio dell’Oca (A. Caròla-Perrotti, in LE PORCELLANE DEI BORBONE DI NAPOLI 1986, cat. 371-376). The central decoration with landscapes and figures like the ones shown here was produced at Doccia in combination with cartouches surrounded by Saxony-type arabesques (cat. 78) and on maiolica wall tiles (O. Rucellai, in MUSEO D’ARTE APPLICATE 2001, vol. II, cat. 543). A.B.
Collection
Accession number
C.1723-1919

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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