Two pairs of maiolica baskets
Antonio Ferretti Manufacture
Lodi, Circa 1770 - 1790
Maiolica polychrome decorated “a piccolo fuoco” (third fire).
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, both with or without contour line, as well as in purple or green monochrome. After efforts to introduce more industrial production techniques to the sector succeeded, even the Ferretti manufacture, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, started heading towards decline despite its attempts to adapt production to neoclassical tastes.
In 1796 the Napoleonic battle for the conquest of the Lodi bridge over the Adda definitively compromised the furnaces. Production resumed, albeit in a rather stunted manner, until Antonio's death on 29 December 1810. (M. L. Gelmini, pp. 28-30, 38, 43 sgg., 130-136 (for Simpliciano); pp. 31 sgg., 45-47, 142-192 (for Antonio).
Similar specimens can be found in the main Lombard public and private collections: a tureen of the same model is kept in Lodi, in the collections of the Civic Museum (Maioliche di Lodi, Milano e Pavia (catal.), Milano 1964, n. 127).
Bibliography for comparison:
- C. Baroni, Storia delle ceramiche nel Lodigiano, in Archivio storico per la città e i comuni del circondario e della diocesi di Lodi, XXXIV (1915), pp. 118, 124, 142; XXXV (1916), pp. 5-8;
- C. Baroni, La maiolica antica di Lodi, in Archivio storico lombardo, LVIII (1931), pp. 453-455;
- L. Ciboldi, La maiolica lodigiana, in Archivio storico lodigiano, LXXX (1953), pp. 25 sgg.;
- S. Levy, Maioliche settecentesche lombarde e venete, Milano 1962, pp. 17 sgg.;
- A. Novasconi - S. Ferrari - S. Corvi, La ceramica lodigiana, Lodi 1964, ad Indicem; Maioliche di Lodi, Milano e Pavia (catal.), Milano 1964, p. 17;
- O. Ferrari - G. Scavizzi, Maioliche italiane del Seicento e del Settecento, Milano 1965, pp. 26 sgg.;
- G. C. Sciolla, Lodi. Museo civico, Bologna 1977, pp. 69-85 passim; G. Lise, La ceramica a Lodi, Lodi 1981;
- M. Vitali, in Storia dell'arte ceramica, Bologna 1986, p. 251;
- M. A. Zilocchi, in Settecento lombardo, Milano 1991, pp. 492-496;
- M. L. Gelmini, in Maioliche lodigiane del '700 (cat. mostra Lodi), Milano 1995, pp. 31 ss., 45-47, 142-192;
- R. Ausenda (a cura di), Musei e Gallerie di Milano. Museo d’Arti Applicate. Le ceramiche. Tomo secondo, Milano 2000, pp. 213-220;
- Felice Ferrari, La ceramica di Lodi, Lodi 2003.