This modern name was given to the service of plates made by the Doccia Factory around 1880 - 1884 for King Umberto I of Savoy. Originally the service was made up of 300 plates, some of which are still preserved in the Quirinal Palace in Rome. The décor is naturalistic, featuring floral subjects and fluttering insects and birds. The elegant decorative techniques used are what render this service unique and make it so highly considered. The technique used is pâte sur pâte (decoration in relief, carried out by applying layers of slip, which are covered in liquid gold after the first firing; the entire piece is then fired again) brought to Doccia by a painter from the Limoges factory. After baking, the plate is finished off with an agate-tipped tool which bronzes the gold to bestow a chiaroscuro effect on the decoration.

Marvelous floral compositions are displayed on this Vecchio Ginori piece, symbolizing spring. The highly detailed decoration is a reproduction of a design found in authentic documents conserved in the Factory’s archives. These were mostly acquired between the mid-eighteenth century and the first years of the twentieth century, to provide the hand-painting decoration (or ‘pittoria’) department with repertoires of designs they could draw on for new ideas and models. The elegant, rare motif gains its intensity from the colours and the exquisite gold used in the decoration. One example exists of this soup tureen dating back to 1760, which is housed in the Museum of Doccia Porcelain.

mazzetti di fiori e frutta - ZUPPIERA A TRALCI - 002 0960 01593 - lt 4 - oz 135

ghirlande di fiori e roselline - ZUPPIERA A TRALCI - 002 0960 01569 - lt 4 - oz 135

In 1851 the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations was inaugurated in London at Crystal Palace, the magnificent conservatory of iron and glass designed by architect Joseph Paxton. The event was strongly supported by Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort. The Doccia Factory was present at this, the first International Exposition, with a series of objects which were limited in number, but selected with a great deal of care. [...] But the quintessential image that Marquis Ginori’s Factory wanted to give of itself at the London Exposition was summed up in one exceptional work: a painted and gilded “Gran Vaso Mediceo (large Medici Vase) with a miniature showing a view of the Factory, and the Doccia Villa

TRIONFO ITALIANO - 016 5497 90507 - h cm 44 - inch 17 1/3