Giovanni Gariboldi

The years in which Richard-Ginori was directed by Gio Ponti were one of the most artistically successful periods in its history.

The ceramics he designed starting in 1923 constitute a very important part of the Museo Ginori collection. Comprising more than four hundred works, the Ponti collection includes both small mass-produced objects and masterpieces that have never been replicated, such as the large vase La Conversazione classica and the imposing centerpiece for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Irony, elegance, and a brilliant reinvention of the antiquity are some of the ingredients that made Ponti’s production an international success and an excellent example of Art Deco taste.

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.