Cup and Saucer thumbnail 1

Cup and Saucer

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

Cup and saucer of hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded. Painted with an Italian landscape with buildings in dark brown, and painted over with green, yellow, pink and blue. Gilt lines on the edges.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Cups
  • Saucer
Materials and techniques
Hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded
Brief description
Cup and saucer of hard-paste porcelain, Doccia porcelain factory, Doccia, 1812-1818.
Physical description
Cup and saucer of hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded. Painted with an Italian landscape with buildings in dark brown, and painted over with green, yellow, pink and blue. Gilt lines on the edges.
Gallery label
(ca. 1995)
Cup and Saucer
Porcelain
ITALY (DOCCIA); late 18th century
Gift of Lt.-Col. K. Dingwall D.S.O.
C.350:l& 2-1914
(Label draft attributed to John V. G. Mallet, ca. 1995)
Credit line
Presented by Lt. Col. K. Dingwall, DSO with Art Fund support
Subject 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. 111 111. Coffee cup with saucer decorated with rural scenes 1812-1818 hard-paste porcelain painted in colours and gold cup h 7 cm; saucer diam. 13 cm inv. C.350&A-1914 gift: Lt. Col. K. Dingwall, DSO through The Art Fund Bibliography: unpublished In 1806 when Carlo Leopoldo Ginori Lisci became an adult and took on the direction of the factory, he decided to start eliminating the sculptures that had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.350&A-1914

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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