Gio Ponti

Highly sought-after creations with an exotic taste, small sculptural groups made specifically to accompany desserts, services that have become true icons of an era and design prototypes: from the eighteenth century through the entire twentieth century, the Manifattura Ginori wrote some of the most significant chapters in the history of tableware art.

The extraordinary collection of table objects of the Museo Ginori tells us about both the creation of the shapes and decorations that identifed the style of the manufactory for centuries and the ability to rethink the form and function of objects to adapt them to the progressive changes in taste and the clients’ needs.

“Useful” products, such as everyday tableware, have been the true source of profit for the Manifattura Ginori since its origins.

From the second half of the nineteenth century, with the proliferation of ceramic applications in the industrial field, a significant portion of Ginori’s - and later Richard-Ginori’s – production consisted of insulators for telegraphs, components for the silk industry, and laboratory porcelain.

Ultimately, it was street signs, tiles, baking dishes, and pharmacy jars that marked the definitive entry of the Manifattura Ginori into the daily life of all Italians.