The Industrial Arts in SpainRiaño, Juan F. (Juan Facundo)
History
The Industrial Arts in Spain
Riaño, Juan F. (Juan Facundo)
Decorative arts -- Spain -- History; Pottery -- Spain -- History
The efforts made by King Charles III. towards increasing industrial arts
in Spain, contributed to the reproductions and efforts made to imitate
foreign wares. When the king founded in 1768 the villages of La Carolina
and La Carlota in Andalucia, he ordered that pottery works should be set
up there. At the same time that he established at Madrid the important
porcelain manufactory of Buen Retiro, he wished that earthenware works
should exist in the same locality, where specimens should be made in
imitation of the best work produced elsewhere. The king was most anxious
to revive to a great extent the almost extinct industry of metallic
lustred pottery, and thanks to this we are able to know most accurately
the receipt and manner in which this lustre was applied. In the same
volume in which I found these documents, [Brit. Mus. MS. Egerton, 507],
are two reports addressed to Count Florida Blanca in 1786, by Iriarte
and Vargas, who were instructed to facilitate the development of this
industry. The first report contains information relating to the pottery
works of the county of Stafford; the second tells us that in the
building of San Isidro el Real, essays had been made to reproduce
English wares, and the lustred productions of Manises, with an idea of
establishing inside or outside of Madrid pottery works on a large scale,
under the protection of Count Florida Blanca. Iriarte and Vargas were of
opinion that these works should be established far from Madrid,
suggesting as the best spot El Viso in La Mancha, owing to the excellent
quality of the clay. Don Sebastian Schepers, a son or brother of
Cayetano Schepers, was at the head of these works. Cayetano was the
chief modeller at the Retiro manufactory. Their imitations of English
earthenware did not succeed; the varnish turned out badly, and they
determined to bring out English workmen. Their imitations of gold
lustred ware were eminently successful, so much so that competent judges
declared it was equal to what was made at Manises. Pottery works where
earthenwares of different descriptions were made existed also at this
time in Madrid; the best were those of Rodriguez and Reato, mentioned in
Larruga's "Memorias Economicas."
At the end of the 18th, and beginning of the 19th century, Valencia and
Aragon supplied the country with painted tiles. One of the finest
examples of this class which have reached us is the pavement of the
chapter house of the cathedral of Saragossa, on which landscapes,
medallions, and animals are finely designed in the Italian renaissance
style. In a shield may be read the following inscription:
Real^{s} Fb^{cas}
D E
Dª Maria Salb
adora
Disdier
Bru f^{t}
Año 1808.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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