The Real Fábrica de Alcora was established by the Count of Aranda in 1727 with the intention of producing faience a quality to compete with the finest of Europe. The count established a drawing school and a system of apprenticeships that ensured this very high quality of draughtsmanship, which is exceptional on tin-glazed earthenware.
This footed dish or Salvilla of the Sèrie Berain type dates from the earliest period of the factory when the surrounding ornament of broderies was derived from the designs of Jean Berain. It is decorated in high-fired, grand feu, colours of blue, manganese and brown with touches of yellow.
Engraving after Rosalba Carriera © Alexius Feit
Alexius Feit has identified the source print as an allegory of love engraved by Edmé Jeaurat or Claude Duflos after Rosalba Carriera published by Diacre in Paris in 1709. Feit has shown four such allegories in the corner of a tabletop.[1] They were copied using pierced stencils, many of which survive, as was the usual practice at Alcora.[2]
Museo del Disseny in Barcelona
A similar dish in the Museo del Disseny in Barcelona is also marked G:.P.: which has been published as being the mark of the painter Gaspar Pastor,[3] but Feit points out that Gaspar Pastor was active around 1747-48 when the Berain style was no longer in fashion. Feit suggests the mark is instead for painters Juan Grangel and Vicente Pastor (active 1736-1745) and that one painted the Berainesque broderie borders and the other the central scene. Feit notes that a similar dish bearing the mark of Cristobal Rocafort is dateable to 1730-1737, which suggests a date of around 1736 to 1737 for our dish.[4]
Tabletop with the four allegories after Rosalba Carriera in the corners
(Escrivá de Romaní 1945, pl. XXI)
Condition:
Foot with four sections neatly restuck, the rim with two shallow rim sections restored
References:
Escrivá de Romaní 1945
Manuel Escrivá de Romaní y de la Quintana, Conde de Casal, Historia de la cerámica de Alcora : 2nd edition (Madrid 1945)
Feit 2017
Alexius Feit, Iconographie de la Faïence d’Alcora 1727-1798, (2017)
Giral 1998
M. D. Giral et al., Loza Y Porcelana de Alcora en El Museo de Ceramica de Barcelona, (1998)
Pacheco 1994
Sánchez Pacheco, El esplendor de Alcora. Cerámica del s XVIII. Exhibition: Palacio Real de Pedralbes, Barcelona, 5 October 1994 – 26 March 1995, (Museu de Céramica de Barcelona, 1994)
SOLD
[1] Feit 2017 IR-05, p. 288 and Escrivá de Romaní 1945, pl. XXI
[2] Feit 2017 p. 268 etc
[3] Pacheco 1994 p. 39, pl. 33S and Giral 1998 pl.14
[4] Feit IP-33, p. 268