Castel Durante seems to have supplied a larger number of pharmacy jars, vases and bottles, than any other fabrique perhaps with the exception of Faenza. The blue and yellow draperies of the earlier period were also a leading feature in the revival after 1730, and a washy green was also used; the drawing was good and some of the landscape pieces excellent, of careful finish, soft colouring and good aërial perspective. It is very probable, however, that many pieces of this period were really the produce of Castelli or Naples. [Illustration] CHAPTER XIII. URBINO. Although not to be ranked with the earliest seats of the manufacture of artistic pottery in Italy, there is no place so much associated with these beautiful productions of the potter’s art as the small city of Urbino, whence, indeed, was derived one of the names by which it is distinguished. Crowning a steep among the many hills of Umbria, remarkable in the landscape from her picturesque position and the towering palace of her dukes, Urbino is one of those very curious cities with which Italy abounds, and which centre round themselves an individual history of the greatest interest. What giants of art and of literature were born or nurtured in that little town! now so neglected and unknown. He who, climbing the steep ascent and tortuous narrow streets, has visited the deserted halls and richly decorated cabinets of her palace, and has travelled through the beauteous scenery of her neighbourhood, to where the delicious valley of the Tiber bursts upon the sight, will never forget the impressions that they leave. In proof of the antiquity of ceramic industry of a more ordinary kind in the vicinity of this city, Pungileoni tells us that an antique amphora was not long since discovered in the grounds of the Villa Gaisa, hard by the river Isauro, and that near to it were also found remains of a potter’s furnace. This, however, does not prove the early establishment of a fabrique of glazed or enamelled decorative wares. Marryat states that in a register of Urbino dated 1477 one Giovanni di Donino Garducci is mentioned as a potter of that place, but it is not till 1501 that any further record occurs. In that year an assortment of vases, dishes, &c. were ordered to be made for the use of the cardinal di Carpaccio, and among them are mentioned “bacili” having the arms of the cardinal in the centre, and water “boccali” or jugs with little lions on the covers. The earliest pieces now known to us, which can with any certainty be ascribed to the potteries of Urbino, are probably those of the Gonzaga-Este service, which are undoubtedly the work of Nicola da Urbino; these must have been painted between the period of the marriage of the marquis with Isabella d’ Este, in 1490, and before her death in 1539.