A Doccia porcelain armorial beaker from the service for Cardinal Gianfranco Stoppani, circa 1752-1753

Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Stoppani (1695-1774);

Mr. G. Bœchi, Milan (by 1957);

Sotheby’s, London, 18 November 2009, lot 451.

Lucca, Fondazione Centro Studi sull Arte Licia e Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Lucca e le porcellane della Manifattura Ginori: Commissioni patrizie e ordinativi di corte, 28 July - 21 October 2001.

L. Ginori-Lisci, 'Heraldic porcelains from the Doccia Factory', Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, Mitteilungsblatt Nr. 40, October 1957, p. 18, taf. IV, fig. 12;

A. Biancalana, Lucca e le porcellane della Manifattura Ginori: Commissioni patrizie e ordinativi di corte, exhibition catalogue, Lucca 2001, pp. 120 and 276, cat.no. 53;

A. Biancalana, Porcellane e Maioliche a Doccia: La Fabbrica dei Marchesi Ginori i Primi Cento Anni, Florence 2009, p. 181, illustrated p. 183.

This beaker is part of Ginori’s so-called serviti dei cardinali, or service of the cardinals, which was made for Cardinal Gianfranco (also called Giovanni Francesco) Stoppani (1695-1774), when he was elected in 1753 by Pope Benedict XIV. Cardinal Stoppani was born to a noble Italian family in Milan and was educated at Collegio Borromeo, the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles, and the University of Pavia where he earned a doctorate in canon in civil law in November 1716. From 1735 to 1743, he was the Apostolic Nunzio to Tuscany and Venice, and he became Bishop of Palestrina in 1763. Stoppani had an established friendship with Marchese Carlo Ginori of the Florentine Doccia factory (see Ginori-Lisci, 1957, p. 20).

Cardinal Stoppani’s journey through Rome’s ecclesiastical sphere was extensive, and he participated in the conclaves of 1758 and 1769 which elected Pope Clement XIII and Pope Clement XIV, respectively. In 1767, he acquired Palazzo Caffarelli on the west side of the Campidoglio, which once hosted a meeting between Pope Paul III Farnese and Charles V in the sixteenth-century. Stoppani was a patron of literary men and a protector of the poor, and was recorded to be an avid art collector with regard to ceiling works and paintings (see G. Borsoi and M. Barbara, Il fasto della porpora: il cardinale Giovan Francesco Stoppani : il suo palazzo, la sua collezione d'arte, 1999).

Cardinal Stoppani commissioned a set of porcelain from the Doccia factory and on 11 March 1752, he penned a letter to Ginori, thanking the marchese for the sample of porcelain that the latter offered as a gift. Within the same letter, the Cardinal reminded him that he had sent forth his own drawing of his family arms for the heraldic service that was promised to him some time ago (Ginori-Lisci 1963, pp. 49-50; Biancalana 2009, p.183). The service seems not to have been delivered by the deadline as the beakers were decorated with the Cardinal’s Hat, a promotion that the Stoppani did not receive until 1753. In another set of letters, dated December 1753, Ginori reports that the Cardinal had received the wares and was infinitely pleased with the service.

Recorded pieces from the Stoppani Service

Two beakers with the Stoppani arms were sold at Christie’s, Geneva, 12 April 1978, lots 30 and 31 from the Collection of the late G. W. Marshall; a third, sold, Christie’s, Rome, 5 December 2005, lot 617 and is now in the Lokar collection; and a fourth at Bonhams, London, 9 December 2021, lot 43. Other objects, including beakers, from the Stoppani service are in worldwide museum collections, including a beaker the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. BK-NM-13487, the milk jug in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, inv. no. 1906.266; and the coffeepot in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, inv. no. C.51-1931.

Related Literature

A. Biancalana, Lucca e le porcellane della Manifattura Ginori: Commissioni patrizie e ordinativi di corte, exhibition catalogue, Lucca 2001, cat. no. 54;

L. Ginori-Lisci, La Porcellana di Doccia, London 1963, p.46, figs. 19, 23;

C. Lehner-Jobst, A. d'Agliano, in J. Kräftner (ed.), Baroque luxury porcelain: the manufactories of Du Paquier in Vienna and of Carlo Ginori in Florence, exhibition catalogue, Munich 2005, pp. 286-87, cat. nos. 112-13;

A. d'Agliano, Porcellane Italiane della Collezione Lokar, Milan 2013, p. 185, cat. no. 87.