Vaso biansato con decoro a fiori e ghirlande di... Lot n° 143

Majolica painted in polychrome. Brand: "Gallo" in black "/ S". Height 41.8 cm. Conservation: very good; small chipping to the upper edge and to a handle, , The Romeo and Ulisse Cantagalli factory is mentioned for the first time at the Italian National Exhibition held in Florence in 1861. It is identified by the mark depicting a "rooster" in the act of crowing, the ideogram of the name, which can be seen under the exemplar presented here. In the factory's production repertoire, particular interest has been reserved for the evocation of the 16th century decoration indicated in the factory's sales catalogues as "di Rodhi" or "Damascus", even if the source of inspiration is the Turkish-Ottoman Iznik motifs, which were very popular in Europe in the second half of the 16th century. The vase presented here is a fine example of the evocation of this particular floral decoration, where the lacquer red typical of Iznik production emerges. It is mentioned in the 1895 "Campionario vasellame" of the Cantagalli Factory and again in the Price List of 1911 at item number 172, as a "Large Rodi vase". This description can be found in the inventory of majolica in stock: "majolica imitation of an antique Rhodes vase owned by the Royal House". , , Bibliography:, G. Conti, La maiolica Cantagalli, in La maiolica Cantagalli e le manifatture ceramiche fiorentine, edited by G. Conti, C. Cefariello Grosso, Rome 1990, pp. 11-142 (in particular, p. 101)., D. Fuchs, in La maiolica Cantagalli e le manifatture ceramiche fiorentine, Rome 1990, pp. 11-142 (in particular, p. 101). 101), D. Fuchs, in Il Risorgimento della maiolica italiana: Ginori e Cantagalli, exhibition catalogue edited by L. Frescobaldi Malenchini, O. Rucellai, Florence 2011, p. 222, cat. 42,