Rare Niderviller Faience Figure of a Lion, circa 1780, Count Custine Period

A fine pair of Doulton Lambeth faience vases, painted by John P. Hewitt, circa 1885. Both vases, beautifully hand painted with semi naked girls...

Pair of Staffordshire pottery figures, probably Enoch Wood factory, circa 1820. The figures very well modelled as ‘Jobson and Nell’. The se...

English pottery slipware baking dish, late 18th century. The plain edged, brown glazed dish, trailed in creamy yellow slip, with a wriggled, trellis design, b...

Japanese Imari porcelain tokuri, Arita, circa 1700, Genroku Period. The squared vessel painted with shaped panels of flowering plants, upon textile design inspired grounds. Rising to...

A fine Japanese porcelain Kenjo Imari ewer and cover, Arita, c. 1700, Genroku Period. The squared pot, painted with large panels of pavilions, in river lan...

A large Japanese Imari deep charger, Arita, c. 1700, Genroku Period. Hand painted to the centre, with a large vase containing a profusion of flowers, upon a terrace. The broad border...

Antique French white ceramic salt, pepper, mustard set in a form of barrel signed Nidervillers, circa 1900.

Dishes set: long fish dish or centerpiece and plate, France Midcentury. The two pieces were made in Niderviller Manufactury in the East of France. The Niderviller manufactory is stil...

A Superb Meissen Marcolini tulip in a tub, Circa 1780. Fine quality Meissen porcelain model of a flowerpot, modelled as cylindrical tub enhanced in gilt with 2 mythological masks on...

French Faience Figural Jug the unglazed underside with the 17th-century mark "F.C", possibly Marseilles, in the form of a woman seated upon a grassy mound, polychrome painted with a ...

French Faience Figural Jug the unglazed underside with the 17th-century mark "F.C", possibly Marseilles, in the form of a woman seated upon a grassy mound, polychrome painted with a ...

Two pairs of maiolica baskets Antonio Ferretti Manufacture Lodi, circa 1770-1790 Maiolica polychrome decorated “a piccolo fuoco” (third fire). Measures: A) Height 3.54 x 6.69 x 9.84 in (9 x 17 x 25 cm); B) Height 3.93 x 7.48 x 11.02 in (10 x 19 x 28 cm). Total weight 4.85 lb (2.200 kg) State of conservation: A) One of the smaller baskets has some areas of restoration, the other slight chipping from use; B) One of the larger baskets is intact and the other shows a clearly glued break. The mold with which the baskets were forged simulates a wicker weave. The two larger works have high, vertical walls, with branch-shaped handles penetrating the weave. The painted decorations, small polychrome flowers applied only externally, highlight the points where the weaves intersect. The decision to leave the center of the basket devoid of decoration is highly unusual, but given the size and complexity of the shape, as well as the quality of the enamel, it is possible to hypothesize that it represents a precise choice in manufacturing or for a particular client. The two smaller baskets have small, twisted handles and, on the outside, reproduce more decisively the characteristic wicker weave, obtained through thin molded lines. The interior exhibits a rich, typical decoration of naturalistic flowers: a bunch centered around a main flower and secondary stems accompanied by small “semis”. The exterior of these works is also adorned with small little flowers where the weaves intersect. The size and morphological characteristics of the baskets confirm their attribution to the Lodi factory of Antonio Ferretti between 1770 and 1790, during its most successful period; by this point his original reworking of the "Strasbourg" decoration, known as "old Lodi", had achieved great fame even outside Italy. This decorative choice represented a strong point of the Lodi factory, which established itself thanks to the vivid nature of the colors made possible by the introduction of a new technique perfected by Paul Hannong in Strasbourg and which Antonio Ferretti introduced in Italy. This production process, called “piccolo fuoco” (third fire), allowed the use of a greater number of colors than in the past; in particular, the purple of Cassius, a red made from gold chloride, was introduced. Its use allowed for many more tones and shades, from pink to purple. The Ferretti family had started their maiolica manufacturing business in Lodi in 1725. The forefather Simpliciano had started the business by purchasing an ancient furnace in 1725 and, indeed, we have evidence of the full activity of the furnaces from April of the same year (Novasconi-Ferrari-Corvi, 1964, p. 26 n. 4). Simpliciano had started a production of excellence also thanks to the ownership of clay quarries in Stradella, not far from Pavia. The production was so successful that in 1726 a decree of the Turin Chamber came to prohibit the importation of foreign ceramics, especially from Lodi, to protect internal production (G. Lise, La ceramica a Lodi, Lodi 1981, p. 59). In its initial stages, the manufacture produced maolicas painted with the “a gran fuoco” (double fire) technique, often in turquoise monochrome, with ornamentation derived from compositional modules in vogue in Rouen in France. This was also thanks to the collaboration of painters like Giorgio Giacinto Rossetti, who placed his name on the best specimens next to the initials of the factory. In 1748 Simpliciano made his will (Gelmini, 1995, p. 30) appointing his son Giuseppe Antonio (known as Antonio) as universal heir. After 1750, when Simpliciano passed away, Antonio was directly involved in the maiolica factory, increasing its fortunes and achieving a reputation on a European level. Particularly important was the aforementioned introduction in 1760 of the innovative “a piccolo fuoco” (third fire) processing, which, expanding the ornamental repertoire with Saxon-inspired floral themes, could commercially compete with the German porcelains that had one of its most renowned offerings in the naturalistic Deutsche Blumen. Antonio Ferretti understood and promoted this technique and this decoration, proposing it in a fresher and more corrective version, less linked to botanical tables...