Milk Jug and Cover thumbnail 1

Milk Jug and Cover

1812-1818 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Milk jug and cover of hard-paste tin-glaze white porcelain.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Milk Jug
  • Cover
Materials and techniques
Hard-paste tin-glaze porcelain
Brief description
Milk jug and cover of hard-paste porcelain, Doccia porcelain factory, Doccia, 1812-1818
Physical description
Milk jug and cover of hard-paste tin-glaze white porcelain.
Dimensions
  • Height: 15.2cm
Gallery label
(ca. 1995)
Milk Jug and Cover
Porcelain
ITALY (DOCCIA); about 1780-1790
J.A. Tulk Bequest
C.65 & A-1956
(Label draft attributed to John V. G. Mallet, ca. 1995)
Credit line
Bequeathed by J.A. Tulk
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. 116-120, Cat. 108 108. Coffee pot and cover with rural scene 1812-1818 hard-paste porcelain painted in colours and gold h 16 cm (with the top) no mark inv. C.65&A-1956 gift: John A. Tulk Bibliography: MOTTOLA MOLFINO 1976-1977, vol. I, n. 441 In 1806 when Carlo Leopoldo Ginori Lisci became an adult and took on the direction of the factory, he decided to start eliminating the sculptures that had characterised the production of the factory up until that time and concentrate on the decorated tableware made in the “Pittoria”, the exclusive porcelain decorating section of the factory (BALLERI 2013, p. 60). The introduction of new types of decoration, including the birds shown here, occurred in that era. These objects belong to different sets but in common have very similar decorations which, except for the consommé cup (which is decorated with a bunch of three cherries on the inside) are reproduced like the end-papers of printed books: the scenes represent birds but also houses and figures in a rural surrounding with little leaves as a kind of frame emerging from the terrain at the bottom. The warehouse registry of the factory shows that the Neapolitan painter Ferdinando Ammannati, who arrived at Doccia from the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea in 1808 (GINORI LISCI 1963, p. 81, 101; D’AGLIANO 1997, p. 20-21; BIANCALANA 2009, p. 167-168; NANNI 2009, p. 35-37), introduced in 1812 decorations on tableware with “a blue band and urban scenes” and flower vases “painted with rural scenes and birds” (BALLERI 2013, p. 60). From January of 1814 until almost the end of 1818 Ammannati was involved almost exclusively in decorating porcelain with urban scenes (“a vedute”) and rural scenes (“a paesini”) either alone or with birds or figures. In the last years of his life, from 1819 to 1823 (he died in 1826) he executed simpler decorations like “blue flowers” or “festoons” as is shown in the last five volumes of the factory warehouse registry (BALLERI 2013, p. 61). These decorations present analogies with some of the ones that were being made at Naples in the last decade of the 18th century, like the ones with birds (A. Caròla-Perrotti, in LE PORCELLANE DEI BORBONI DI NAPOLI 1986, p. 456- 458, cat. 388-390). This fact re-enforces the hypothesis that they were brought to Doccia by Ammannati. In particular, the sets with “vedute” and “paesini” with and without figures and birds must have been extremely popular if Ammannati was painting only these from 1814 to 1818. I believe that the objects shown here can be dated to the years 1812-1818 and their attribution to Doccia can be confirmed, although in the Register of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the tea cup (cat. 110) and the coffee cup with saucer (cat. 111) were attributed, the former to the Vinovo factory and the latter, first, tentatively to Buen Ritiro and later to Vinovo. R.B.
Collection
Accession number
C.65&A-1956

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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