Antique Collecting: Pottery And Porcelain

Antique Collecting: Pottery And Porcelain

Continental porcelain

Page 8 of 8

Capodimonte, near Naples

The King of Naples married a daughter of Augustus the Strong, King of Saxony, who owned the Meissen factory and gave his daughter seventeen table services as part of her dowry. It is not surprising to learn that her husband became anxious to make porcelain in his own country; he succeeded in 1743 and a factory was opened in the grounds of the palace of Capodimonte. Sixteen years later, the King of Naples became Charles III of Spain, and removed most of the workmen and equipment to the garden of his palace of Buen Retiro in Madrid. The buildings were fortified by the French during the Peninsular War, and destroyed by Wellington's troops in 1812.

The Capodimonte ware is made of a creamy white soft-paste, of which surviving examples are usually finely decorated. Figures are rarely seen outside museums; many of them are original models comparable with the best of the eighteenth century. Some of the Capodimonte composition was shipped to Spain when the move was made to Buen Retiro, but this was expensive and at¬tempts were made to find local substitutes. Eventually a good white paste was made, but on the whole the work produced in Spain is not considered to compare either in material or model¬ling with that done in Italy. In its earlier days the factory made snuff-boxes and other pieces modelled with naturalistic sea shells, and tablewares were often painted with scenes of horsemen at battle. The same marks were used at both factories: a fleur-de-lys in blue or gold, or incised.

Naples

The son of Charles of Spain, Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, started in 1771 a manufactory in emulation of that formerly at Capodimonte. A creamy white soft-paste was used for figures and tablewares, and figures were made in the fashionable biscuit. Some extensive table services were produced for presentation for diplomatic purposes; one sent to George III in 1787 is preserved at Windsor Castle.

The marks are: the letters 'RF' in blue with a crown above; and a crowned 'N' in red or blue or impressed.

Belgium

Tournay

A good soft-paste porcelain was made here from about 1751; at first it was greyish in appearance, but later it became a good creamy white. Both the Sevres and Meissen styles were copied, but much original work was done in both tablewares and figures. A quantity of tableware with painting in underglaze blue is similar in appearance to Worcester, and some of the groups are akin to those of Chelsea. This is not surprising in view of the fact that some ex-Tournay craftsmen actually worked at Chelsea for a time, but it does not excuse the occasional modern practice of adding anchors and triangles to genuine Tournay groups! Painting was often of excellent quality, and a series of plates painted with animals within dark blue and gilt borders compare well with Sevres. Some Tournay porcelain was sold to the Hague factory and decorated there.

During the nineteenth century much forging of eighteenth-century English and French soft-paste porcelains was carried on at Tournay, and they also reissued some of their own models of earlier date.

Genuine marks in colours or gold are a roughly-drawn tower, or a version of the Dresden crossed swords but with a small cross at each opening.

Holland

Weesp, near Amsterdam

A hard-paste manufactory was started in 1759, some of the workers were Germans thrown out of employment by the Seven Years War so German styles predominated as regards models and painting. The mark, also, was a version of the Dresden crossed swords but with three dots placed about them. In 1771 the factory was bought by Johannes de Mol and removed to Oude Loosdrecht; a similar paste was used, and the mark was changed to the letters 'M.O.L.' incised or painted in colour. A further move followed in 1784 to Amstel and the mark then became the name of that place in black or blue. Popular products of these factories were sets of vases elaborately pierced and sparsely decorated, but with the little painting on them of good quality.

The Hague

A decorating establishment bought unpainted wares from various factories and decorated them, adding a mark in blue of a stork with a fish in its beak. Porcelain was made on the premises from about 1776 until 1790 and has the same mark.

Switzerland

Zurich

A factory was opened in 1763 and started by making a creamy white soft-paste which is now very rare. Two years later, hard-paste was made and this was decorated very carefully in distinc¬tive styles that make the ware some of the most beautiful of its period. Figures are rare, expensive, and many are very attractively modelled and coloured. Little or no porcelain was made after about 1791. The mark is the letter 'z' in underglaze blue, some¬times with one or more dots below.

Nyon, near Geneva

This factory, starting in 1780, made a good hard-paste. Tablewares were the principal productions, and the few figures are very rare. The mark is a fish in outline, but it should be noted that a mark resembling this was used elsewhere.

Scandinavia

Marieberg, near Stockholm, Sweden

A soft-paste was made here from 1766 to 1769, it is a cream-tinted glassy ware and small vases, custard cups and other pieces were made from it. A different paste was later introduced, followed for a short time by a hard-paste. Some figures were made, and more custard cups and mustard pots. The mark is usually a mono¬gram of 'M' and 'B' sometimes with three small crowns above.

Copenhagen

A soft-paste factory operated from 1759 to 1765, but its pro¬ductions are very rare. The hard-paste Royal factory began about 1771 and is still in production. Tableware, much of it decorated in underglaze blue, was made, and also many figures. The mark is three wavy lines one over the other, in underglaze blue.

Russia

The Imperial factory at St Petersburg (now Leningrad) did not begin production until about 1758 and few of the products of its early years are to be seen outside Russia. Large vases were made in the early nineteenth century and some were given as presents to ambassadors and others; they compare well with the work of European factories. Figures and groups of Russian workers and peasants were made, and these are sometimes to be seen. Several factories were in existence in Moscow at the end of the eighteenth century and in the first quarter of the nineteenth: they produced similar pieces to the Imperial establishment.

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