Vezzi porcelain is
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
made by the Vezzi porcelain factory in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, Italy, established in 1720 by the Vezzi family. It was the first porcelain factory in Italy, after the experimental
Medici porcelain of the 16th century. It operated only until 1727, so surviving pieces are few, probably fewer than 200. It made "true"
hard-paste porcelain
Hard-paste porcelain, sometimes "true porcelain", is a ceramic material that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at very high temperature, usually around 1400 °C. It was first made in China ...
, and was only the third factory in Europe to do so, hiring technicians from
Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's work an ...
and
Vienna porcelain
Vienna porcelain is the product of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory (German: ''Kaiserlich privilegierte Porcellain Fabrique''), a porcelain manufacturer in Alsergrund in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1718 and continued until 1864.
The firm wa ...
, the first two makers.
The great majority of wares are teaware: cups, saucers, teapots and a few small plates. Many cups are beakers without handles, and the teapots, which form an unusually large proportion of the surviving pieces, often have moulded shapes, including
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
decoration. The bodies can be white, but often tend to grey; they are very
translucent
In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions ...
. The shapes often draw from
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
ware, but they are brightly painted in a variety of styles, influenced by the northern factories and Asian export wares.
History
Francesco Vezzi (1651–1740) was a
goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...
, though more interested in business as a "speculator", and had visited the Vienna factory. He had recently bought a Venetian title of nobility. He financed the factory, run by his son Giovanni (born 1687). They made Christoph Conrad Hunger a partner in 1721. He had worked in Vienna and had visited Meissen, apparently learning some of its secrets.
He left Venice in 1724, and returned to Meissen in 1727. This seems to have led to the end of supplies of the vital ingredient
kaolin
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
being sent to Venice from Saxony.
There was to be no more porcelain made in Venice between 1727 and 1758, and only the
Cozzi porcelain
Cozzi porcelain is porcelain made by the Cozzi factory in Venice, which operated between 1764 and 1812. Production included sculptural figurines, mostly left in plain glazed white, and tableware, mostly painted with floral designs or with figure ...
factory was to achieve a lasting success there in the 18th century, operating from 1764 to 1812. The Vezzi factory was at the time unique among European factories in operating on a purely commercial basis. Most other factories were owned by the ruler, as Meissen and later Vienna were, or at least had government support, both moral and financial. Later, the English factories such as
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
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United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
and
Bow were also to stand alone. Giovanni Vezzi may eventually have faced opposition even from his father Francesco, perhaps because his new peer group in the Venetian nobility felt that owning a smoky manufacturing business in the city was inappropriate behaviour. In 1727 an agreement between father and son cancelled the latter's debts but required him to destroy the kilns.
[Favaro, 291]
File:Teapot MET DT4382 (cropped).jpg, Teapot with relief and painted decoration
File:Manifattura vezzi, vaso biansato, 1727 ca.jpg, Vase
File:BLW Teapot with Actresses.jpg, Teapot with relief and painted decoration of actresses
File:Teapot MET ES186.jpg, Teapot with relief and painted decoration
File:Beakers (2) MET SF06 398b img5.jpg, Mark with "Vena." for "Venice"
File:Piattino Vezzi (2) 1722 circa (cropped).JPG, Plate (black and white photo)
File:Beakers (2) MET SF06 398b img1.jpg, Beaker (other side of one at top)
Notes
References
*
Battie, David, ed., ''Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Porcelain'', 1990, Conran Octopus,
*
Chaffers, William, ''Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain'', 1874 edition
online*Le Corbeiller, Clare, ''Eighteenth-century Italian Porcelain'', 1985, Metropolitan Museum of Art, , 9780870994210
fully online*Savage, George, and Newman, Harold, ''An Illustrated Dictionary of Ceramics'', 1985, Thames & Hudson,
*Favaro, Giovanni, "Old and New Ceramics", in Lanaro, Paola (ed), ''At the Centre of the Old World: Trade and Manufacturing in Venice and on the Venetian Mainland (1400–1800)'', 2006, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.), {{ISBN, 0772720312, 9780772720313
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Ceramics manufacturers of Italy
1720 establishments in Italy
Italian companies established in 1720
Companies based in Venice
Porcelain
1727 disestablishments in Europe
Manufacturing companies established in 1720