The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 2 (of 3)Williams, Leonard
History
The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 2 (of 3)
Williams, Leonard
Decorative arts -- Spain -- History
Through the courtesy of Señor Osma I am able to give illustrations of
a few of the finest specimens of lustred ware in his magnificent
collection (Plates lxii.-lxvi.). The three small vessels facing pages
176, 178, and 180 are of Valencian workmanship, and date, according to
their owner, from between 1460 and 1480. The two plates are also
Valencian. The one with a bull in the centre dates from between 1480 and
1500; and that which has a greyhound from slightly earlier--say 1470 to
1490.
POTTERY OF SEVILLE, PUENTE DEL ARZOBISPO, TALAVERA DE LA REINA, TOLEDO,
AND BARCELONA; POROUS WARE; PORCELAIN OF ALCORA AND THE ROYAL FACTORY OF
THE BUEN RETIRO.
We have seen that Seville was an early and important centre of the
potter's craft in Spain. Her potteries were celebrated even with the
Romans, and probably have at no moment been inactive. Fifty, established
in the suburb of Triana, were mentioned in the sixteenth century by
Pedro de Medina, and documents which tell of many more have recently
been discovered by Gestoso. The excellence of the Seville tiles has been
described in a preceding section of this chapter. Their production
still continues upon a large scale; and the ware of the Cartuja factory,
which reached the zenith of its fame towards the end of the eighteenth
century, is considered by Jacquemart and other authorities to rival with
the Italian wares of Savona.
Pottery made in other parts of the Peninsula--particularly that of
Talavera de la Reina--is known to have been imitated by the Seville
potters with embarrassing perfection. In the case of the so-called "loza
de Puente del Arzobispo," it is the Seville ware itself which seems to
have been imitated. Puente del Arzobispo is a small village near Toledo.
Mendez wrote of it in the seventeenth century:--"Fine pottery is
manufactured in about eight kilns, which produce more than 40,000 ducats
yearly." "In 1755," says Riaño, "thirteen pottery kilns existed at this
place; they still worked in 1791, but their productions were very
inferior in artistic merit."
[Illustration: LXVII
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE]
Not many years ago the name of Puente del Arzobispo was connected by
Baron Davillier with certain polychrome non-lustred plates and other
vessels which are greatly esteemed for their rarity, and of which a few
specimens exist in the South Kensington and other museums, as well as in
one or two private collections, such as that of Señor Osma.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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