Knife handle, spoon, olive ladle, and cruet holder
Manifattura Ginori
Since its foundation, the Manifattura di Doccia had specialized in the production of table and food utensils, both in white porcelain and polychrome decorated pieces. Among these, the most significant are handles for cutlery painted with stamped blue flowers, floral motifs in various colours, and Chinese-style figures. In the collections of the Museo Ginori, there are two specimens dating to around 1750 (invv. 3898, 3899), which feature a shaped and moulded form, decorated with small flowers in violet and red. Other types of floral ornaments made at Doccia on porcelain handles are also known, but they are more complex due to a greater number of corollas and stylized motifs along the handle.
The Manifattura also produced serving cutlery to be placed on the table. This is the case of the olive ladle in white porcelain with a terminal cup pierced with holes, allowing easy draining of pickled foods (inv. 3734). Such utensils could also be adorned with the same decorations already used for services, as shown by the spoon with the typical rosebud motif produced at Doccia in the last quarter of the eighteenth century (inv. 689). This decoration, mentioned in the factory’s registers in the 1780s as “painted with scattered rosebuds, profiles, and red-purple denticulated border,” is also found on a cruet holder, probably dating to the Empire period (inv. 690). Consisting of two distinct pieces, the container features two cylindrical compartments for glass bottles containing oil and vinegar, and a handle shaped like a rod ending with a double-faced herm figure. The Museo Ginori collection includes many artifacts of this type, including a variant of the same model with simpler decoration and a female double-faced herm (inv. 654).
- 01
Knife handle, spoon, olive ladle and cruet holder
Since its foundation, the Manifattura di Doccia had specialized in the production of table and food utensils, both in white porcelain and polychrome decorated pieces. Among these, the most significant are handles for cutlery painted with stamped blue flowers, floral motifs in various colours, and Chinese-style figures. In the collections of the Museo Ginori, there are two specimens dating to around 1750 (invv. 3898, 3899), which feature a shaped and moulded form, decorated with small flowers in violet and red. Other types of floral ornaments made at Doccia on porcelain handles are also known, but they are more complex due to a greater number of corollas and stylized motifs along the handle.
The Manifattura also produced serving cutlery to be placed on the table. This is the case of the olive ladle in white porcelain with a terminal cup pierced with holes, allowing easy draining of pickled foods (inv. 3734). Such utensils could also be adorned with the same decorations already used for services, as shown by the spoon with the typical rosebud motif produced at Doccia in the last quarter of the eighteenth century (inv. 689). This decoration, mentioned in the factory’s registers in the 1780s as “painted with scattered rosebuds, profiles, and red-purple denticulated border,” is also found on a cruet holder, probably dating to the Empire period (inv. 690). Consisting of two distinct pieces, the container features two cylindrical compartments for glass bottles containing oil and vinegar, and a handle shaped like a rod ending with a double-faced herm figure. The Museo Ginori collection includes many artifacts of this type, including a variant of the same model with simpler decoration and a female double-faced herm (inv. 654).
