A large portion of the Naples, Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea porcelain 'Servizio Farnesiano', circa 1784-88

each piece with a border of a gilded foliage band interlacing a shadowed green band reserving four en grisaille portrait medallions of figures from antiquity encased around a label inscribed 'MVSEO FARNESIANO', the plates and baskets brightly painted in enamels with medallions of rustic ruinous landscapes and harbour scenes, comprising twenty-two plates, approximately 26cm., 10 1/4 in. diam.; a square shaped dish, 23.5cm., 9 1/4 in.; two oval baskets with gilded mask terminals, 24cm., 9 1/2 in. wide; three oval tureens and covers, 21.2cm., 8 3/8 in. wide; four oval stands, 27.3cm., 10 3/4 in. wide and two circular tureens, one with a cover with gilded artichoke finial, 19.6cm., 7 3/4 in. diam., most pieces with crowned RFF monogram in iron-red, all but one plate with view title in iron-red to reverse, various incised numerals and letters including 3, 4, S, T,

Giuseppe Beccadelli, Il Marchese di Sambuca, Ambassador in Vienna for il Regno delle Due Sicilie, appointed Ministro di Stato from 1776 to 1786 after the Marchese Tanucci;
Thence by descent.

Related Literature
A. Caròla-Perrotti, La Porcellana Della Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea (1771-1806), Naples, 1978, TAV. XXXII-XXXV;
A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane Dei Borbone Di Napoli, Capodimonte E Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea 1743-1806, Naples, 1986, pp. 376-380;
A. Caròla-Perrotti, 'The Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea (1771-1806)', Andreina d'Agliano (ed.), Italian porcelain in the Lokar collection, Milan, 2013, pp. 239-246;
Acton, I Borboni di Napoli, 1734-1825, Firenze, 1997, pp. 195-196, 202, 210, 217-224

One oval tureen cover with three hairline cracks; One oval basket with a section of rim segmented into three parts and repaired; the other with a section at one side of the basket segmented into five parts and repaired; Two oval stands broken and repaired; Plates, One broken into two pieces and repaired, another broken into several sections and repaired, five with varying degrees of a fine mesh of faint body cracks; two with a star crack to the body and another with a body crack, one with rim hairline crack, some scattered typical kiln pitting; Some scattered gilding wear.
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When the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea factory opened in 1771-72 after the closure of the factory at Capodimonte, the young King Ferdinand IV of Naples was in his early twenties and had a blossoming enthusiasm for porcelain production, a view which had been discouraged by the statesman Bernardo Tanucci, who had overseen the Regency council of the King in his youth.

In the following years, and with the encouragement of Giuseppe Beccadelli, Principe di Camporeale (1726-1813), the diplomat and newly appointed Primo Segretari di Stato from 1776, the King took an increasing interest in the factory. In 1779 the Marchese Domenico Venuti (1745-1817) was appointed as Direttore Interino of the factory, a role that would combine administrative duties and artistic direction. The Real Fabbrica factory began what would be a significant stylistic shift in its production.

Domenico Venuti had a natural inclination to the antique, trained as he was in archaeology. He was also the son of the Antiquarian and Scholar Marcello Venuti, who had previously been the General Superintendent of Antiquities for the city of Naples and had been appointed to oversee excavation of archaeological sites, as well as publishing numerous works on the subject, including Descrizione delle prime scoperte dell'antica citta　d'Ercolano of 1749. It is under the direction of Domenico Venuti that the Royal factory moved away from their Rococo past at Capodimonte, and looked towards Neo-Classicism, inspired by the art of the Kingdom, which was then literally re-surfacing.

The 'Servizio Farnesiano’, or Farnese service, was the first to be produced at the factory featuring landscape decoration of neo-classical type, painted onto a pure white ground achieved by the addition of tin oxides to the glaze (‘smalto allo stagno’). The beautifully detailed scenic views which appear on the plates and baskets of this group depict Naples and the surrounding Italian countryside, taken from or inspired by the Abbe de Saint Non’s comprehensive five-volume work ‘Illustrations de Voyages pittoresques de Naples et de Sicile’ of 1781 to 1786.

Jean-Claude Richard, Abbe de Saint Non (1727-91) travelled to Rome in 1759 to study Art and Architecture, and it is here that he met Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Hubert Robert who were to contribute drawings to the Voyages pittoresque. In the following year he travelled on to Naples and the surrounding archaeological sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum.

As most of the Factory documents referring to the service are lost, the identity of the patron who commissioned the service was unknown until it was discovered in recent research carried out by Angela Caròla-Perrotti, which she presented in the lecture ‘The Farnese Service and the Neapolitan ‘Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea’: a secret revealed’, at Art Antiques London, 16^{th June 2012}.

Very few pieces of this service seem to survive in private collections, and with the infrequency of pieces appearing at auction, the Farnese service has acquired an air of mystery. It is extremely rare that such a group of pieces should come to auction together; only a handful of pieces have appeared at auction in recent years. A single plate was sold in these rooms, 23rd February 1988, lot 312; a basket and a cache-pot or wine cooler were sold at Christie’s Milan, 10th June 2002, lots 363 and 364; and a pair of cache-pots was sold in the same rooms, 3rd December 2004, lot 221.