As with the earlier ‘Medici’ porcelain works in Florence, the Doccia factory was founded by a nobleman who was himself closely involved in the technical side of making porcelain – the Marchese Carlo Ginori (1702-1757). Indeed, it is likely that the Marchese was aware of and admired ‘Medici porcelain’, as he occasionally used the same factory mark of the dome of Florence Cathedral, and as the stencilled decoration on pieces like this dish recalls the painted patterns on certain Medici wares. Under Carlo Ginori, the factory undertook some remarkable experiments in porcelain production, including ambitious large figure sculptures, some of the earliest attempts at transfer-printing in underglaze cobalt blue, double-walled pierced cups inspired by Chinese Dehua imports, and useful wares like this dish decorated in cobalt blue using stencils. The method of using stencils for the main painted decoration appears to have been unique to the factory in eighteenth-century Europe, though stencils were used elsewhere to ‘reserve’ panels in white against a ground colour. It is interesting to note that, although the factory was founded by a nobleman, several of these production lines involved the use of underglaze cobalt blue. This suggests that at Doccia blue-and-white decoration was not regarded as an inferior type of decoration to polychrome enamelling, as it was in England and elsewhere in Europe a little after this piece was made. The greyish body and grey cast to the underglaze cobalt blue are characteristic of Doccia porcelain.