The production of ceramic artifacts for advertising or more generally decorated with the logos of hotels, restaurants, bars, and venues of all kinds, is very common in the history of the Manifattura di Doccia. The Museo Ginori collection includes several white porcelain plaques with examples of decalcomania decorations for customized supplies.
Plates like this one - on which various examples of logos (hotels and bars, but also of liquor companies, such as the steam distillery “Protti e Menini” in Bologna) are applied - served as samples for internal use or to show clients. Each decoration was classified in a numerical inventory, whose number is shown adjacent to the logo on the plate. The logos were applied on porcelain tableware using decalcomanias, that is, decorations printed on paper by lithographic stones or engraved metal plates.
The reproductions were sprinkled with collodion to create a film that, separated from the paper support, kept the decoration applied on the porcelain intact. During firing, the collodion, burning, released the decoration, which penetrated under the crystalline coating of the artifact. Through this process, uniform decorations and better qualitative results in rendering the minute details of the various logos were achieved, difficult to realize with hand painting. This technique also allowed serial and standardized production that significantly impacted cost containment.
