A pair of Sicilian maiolica vases and covers, Duca di Sperlinga factory, Palermo, circa 1767-1780

Hampel, Münich, 21 September 2012, lot 1075.

The Duca di Sperlinga, a member of the highest ranks of Palermo’s aristocracy, founded the factory in 1767. The immediate intention was private, to produce fine maiolica inspired by Neapolitan and French faience to furnish the interior of his Villa Malaspina, the project of a noble dilettante of taste. Travelling often to Naples, he was able to employ Neapolitan craftsmen working at the Royal factory of Caserta, closed in 1756. Among the most significant figures associated with the Palermo manufactory was Angelo del Vecchio, who had joined the enterprise as early as 1761. The best pieces and the most elegant maiolica typical of the Duca's factory are the vases and the flower pots with a thick and glossy dark blue glaze, strikingly contrasting with the a freddo gilding.

A vase and cover similar to the pair in the present lot is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Rackham, 1940, no. 1285); another one is in the

Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri, Naples. A potiche with cover, with the same colour scheme, but with a Neoclassical decoration is in the Museo Civico Palazzo Madama, in Turin (Inventory no. 2578/c). A pair of neoclassical urn-shaped pot-pourri vases was sold by Sotheby's, Milan, 10 June 2009, lot. 179 (Daidone Palermo, 2005, no. 149).

Enrico Colle in his brilliant essay, on Neoclassical Sicilian decorative arts and interiors has been able to reconstruct all the details and news about the birth of the Malvica Factory, (see Colle 2005).

Related Literature:

B. Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London, 1940, no. 1285

L. Arbace, La Maiolica Italiana, Naples, 1996, no. 306

R. Daidone, La Ceramica Siciliana, Palermo, 2005, p. 183

E. Colle, Il Mobile Neoclassico in Italia, Milan, 2005, pp. 45-47.

R. Daidone, Terzo fuoco a Palermo, 1760-1825, exhibition catalogue, Palermo, 1997, p. 113