Two vases
-
Maker
Manufactured by Cantagalli (factory founded 1878)
-
Detail
Lustre-decorated majolica
55 cm (high)
Italian (Florence), circa 1900
-
Marked
Each vase with cockerel factory mark, and numbered (see right)
-
Provenance
English private collection (first vase), William Wiltshire III; John Winter (second vase)
-
Literature
Livia Malenchini and Olivia Rucellai, The Revival of Italian Maiolica: Ginori and Cantagalli, 2002, fig. 107 (for drawing of vase of the same form, see below), and fig. 88 (for a vase of the same form)
-
Notes
The shape of the present vases embodies the energy and modernity of the Stile Liberty. The two lotus leaf stems twisting up gracefully from the bottle shaped body to form a cup at the neck of the vase. The lustre decoration too is exceptionally accomplished.
This Cantagalli form exists on three other vases, with different lustre decoration. One is in the Collezione Alfonso Lucifero d’Aprigliano, was shown in the exhibition in Rome in 2002 (see Giuliana Gardelli ‘La Ceramica e il Liberty’, in Il Liberty in Italia, 2001, p.254, no.12.