Lot # : 110 - 4 > ITALIAN CAPODIMONTE PORCELAIN Delicate FLOWERS

> PICKUP in LIBERTY, MS or McCOMB, MS by APPOINTMENT < A collection of -4- delicate bisque porcelain flower figurines in the manner in the Capodimonte style of Italy ~ Mostly pink florals, each standing or extending around 4-5" overall ~ An egg, flowers on a branch, a single flower and three flowers with petals surrounding an opening for a candles, in the manner of a candlestick ~ Note the tiny ladybug to the stalk ~ Quite delicate ~ Perhaps typical and minor elements relative to age and material ~ Under scrutiny, possibly a tiny nick of chip to some. HISTORY ~ CAPODIMONTE PORCELAIN Capodimonte porcelain (sometimes "Capo di Monte") is porcelain created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory (Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte), which operated in Naples, Italy, between 1743 and 1759. Capodimonte is the most outstanding factory for early Italian porcelain, the Doccia porcelain of Florence being the other main Italian factory. Capodimonte is most famous for its moulded figurines. The porcelain of Capodimonte, and later Naples, was a "superb" translucent soft-paste, "more beautiful" but much harder to fire than the German hard-pastes, or "a particularly clear, warm, white, covered with a mildly lustrous glaze". The Capodimonte mark was a fleur-de-lys in blue, or impressed in relief inside a circle. The entire Capodimonte factory was moved to Madrid when its founder King Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his brother in 1759. Strictly speaking, this was the end of "Capodimonte porcelain", but the reputation of the factory's products was so high that the name is often claimed and used for porcelain made in other factories in or around Naples. The first of these was the new royal factory established by Charles' son Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, which manufactured from 1771 until 1806. This is generally known as Naples porcelain, officially the "Naples Royal Porcelain Manufactory", (Real fabbrica delle porcellane di Napoli) or Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea. Since the 19th century a number of other factories have used the name, for a wide variety of wares, with a great range of quality. In 1743, the newly arrived Bourbon King Charles and his wife Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony, founded the factory in the grounds of the Palace of Capodimonte on the outskirts of Naples (now a museum). The queen's grandfather, Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony, had founded the Meissen porcelain factory which led European porcelain, and her dowry is said to have included 17 Meissen table services. They recruited the Flemish chemist Livio Ottavio Schepers, whose son also joined, and the painter Giovanni Caselli (1698-1752), later followed by his niece Maria. The Florentine sculptor Giuseppe Gricci (c. 1700-1770), already working for the Neapolitan crown since 1738, joined as chief modeller; by 1755 he had five other modellers working for him, creating the moulds used for the pieces. The kingdom's diplomatic network around Europe was ordered to seek out experienced workers and trade secrets, paying generously, and internally a successful organized search was made for sources of the correct minerals, with local authorities sending samples to the capital. Charles also founded royal factories for making tapestries and pietre dure. Naples already had many factories making maiolica and other wares, often as a sideline from bricks, but the recruiters for Capodimonte rather looked down on the maiolica workers, and the main roles were given to imported workers. The local market developed strongly over this period, helped by a fashion for drinking chocolate, but Capodimonte faced competition from imported porcelain, both Chinese and German, at the top end of the market, and English and local glazed earthenware (creamware and the Italian version called terraglia) in the middle and lower parts of the market. When Charles became King of Spain in 1759 he took the equipment and about 40 key workers, including Gricci, with him, to found the Real Fábrica del Buen Retiro in Madrid. Since they took nearly five tons of paste, the main artists, and continued to use the fleur-de-lys mark, distinguishing between the products of the two factories from the years around the move can be very difficult. Although the Capodimonte structures and equipment such as kilns and moulds that were not taken to Spain were destroyed, many of the remaining workers were hired by the new Giustiniani factory, which attempted to find a formula for porcelain but failed, instead making fine earthenware similar to Wedgwood. When porcelain production resumed after fifteen years, the new Naples factory was completely rebuilt in a different location, initially at Portici, but inherited some workers from the Capodimonte factory, and used a similar soft-paste body. It was notable for Neoclassical subjects and styles, and figures in unglazed biscuit porcelain.[16] By 1806, Napoleon had invaded the Kingdom of Naples and the Bourbons fled to Sicily, protected by the British Navy; production was discontinued at the factory. Naples porcelain had the usual mark of a crown over a blue "N", though this mark has been, and continues to be, used by many imitations of greatly varying quality. Following a trend in the later years of the Naples porcelain factory, after it closed, Neapolitan potteries continued to make creamware, fine glazed earthenware, similar to English Wedgwood. During the second half of the 19th century, the first private porcelain factories in Naples were created, eventually including Majello (1867), Mollica, Cacciapuoti, Visconti, and many others. Copies and forgeries of the early Capodimonte pieces were made by many factories, apparently the largest in being at Rudolfstadt, then in Germany and now in the Czech Republic. With little or no control over the use of the brand name, many cheap earthenware pieces carry it. "Capo di Monte" was also used in the 19th century, for example by Royal Worcester in England, to refer to styles of figurines, that are in fact little related to the 18th-century Neapolitan products. The various factories whose wares were sold as "Capodimonte" from the early 19th century onwards mostly stuck to Victorianized versions of the 18th-century forms and styles. The Palace of Caserta displays some large and fussy vases, and figurine groups became large and complicated, still often wearing 18th-century costume. Baskets of flowers made in porcelain became popular, as did pieces in openwork "spagetto". In the 20th century a style of "raggedly dressed peasants of Walt Disney cartoon appearance" developed, along with "a sub-class of earthenware pieces, mostly boxes, of appalling quality with brassy gilding" but still with the crowned "N" mark.