The "Casa eccellentissima Vezzi" was founded by Francesco Vezzi, a goldsmith of Venice. He invested the sum of 30,000 ducats in a porcelain company, amongst whose shareholders were Luca Mantovani and others. The site of the Vezzi manufactory of porcelain was at S. Nicolo in Venice. How long after Vezzi's death it was carried on does not appear, but judging from the statements made to the Senate in 1765, it did not long survive him, and the secret of his process for making porcelain had evidently not been disclosed. Materials for making porcelain were to be obtained in the Venetian dominions, but not such as to produce the _hard_ or Oriental porcelain; they were therefore procured from Saxony, as were probably also some of the workmen, which will account for the fact that the "Casa eccellentissima Vezzi" produced both _hard_ and _soft_ paste. The pieces made at the Vezzi manufactory are painted with masquerades, grotesque Chinese figures and decorations in relief, flowers, birds, arabesques, and geometrical patterns and colours, statuettes, &c., especially in the Venetian red which pervades all the decorations, the handles, borders, and mouldings being sometimes covered with silver or platinum, producing the effect of oxidised metal mountings. Another striking peculiarity in the decoration of porcelain of this period is a border of black or coloured diaper work formed by crossed lines, having in the interstices small gilt points or crosses bordered by scrolls. These specimens are mostly of hard paste in the form of bowls, plates, tureens, &c. [Illustration: FIG. 118.--VASE AND COVER.] [Illustration: FIG. 119.--VASE. _Cozzi period._ Height 17 in.] A beautiful example of this porcelain is represented in Fig. 118, a vase and cover of hard paste painted in lake _camaïeu_, heightened by gold, with a continuous landscape; the peculiar border, noticed above, with marks and interlaced bands, is shown on the cover; the edges, knob, and flutings are raised and plated with silver or platinum. After the Vezzi manufactory had ceased to exist we have no documents to prove that any efforts were made to introduce the manufacture of porcelain into Venice until December 1757, when a petition was presented to the Venetian College by Frederick Hewelcke & Co., who stated that the sale introduced and directed by them in Dresden of Saxon porcelain had been carried on in a very flourishing manner, but that in consequence of the then existing war (the Seven Years' War, which commenced in 1756), they had been obliged to abandon Saxony and to seek refuge in a foreign country. On the 18th of March 1758, a decree granted to the Hewelckes the privileges they had requested. It seems that the undertaking proved eventually to be unfortunate, and at the termination of that war, which had brought them to Venice, they returned to their native country.