Ceramic Sculpture of Tyrolean Children by Teodoro Sebelin for Bassano, Italy, 1930s

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Item description:
Glazed and vitrified ceramic sculpture (ceramic with added kaolin, also known as soft porcelain), entirely decorated by hand, … Read more Item description:
Glazed and vitrified ceramic sculpture (ceramic with added kaolin, also known as soft porcelain), entirely decorated by hand, depicting a pair of mountain children in Tyrolean dress, the boy with an accordion and the girl reading a newspaper. Signed under the base and made by Teodoro Sebelin, marked with one of his earliest and oldest marks. There is also a scroll under the base with the words "Cola di Rienzo, Rome, Di Zucchin," probably belonging to the art gallery that sold the object in the past. Sebelin trained at the Vicenza factories in Bassano and Nove and in 1921 collaborated with Fabris. In the same year, he opened his own factory. Our pair belongs to the factory's first artistic production, made around 1930, and the evident patina, especially under the base, confirms our dating. The rich, extremely brilliant glazing is beautiful, similar to that of the Lenci sculptures in Turin, made with high-quality enamels rich in feldspars.

Useful information for evaluating the item:
From an internet search, we found that similar sculptures depicting children by Teodoro Sebelin are offered at an average price of around €500-700 per sculpture. Our item consists of two subjects, which are certainly worth more than a single child depicted individually.

Information about the artist and/or manufacturer:
The historic "Sebelin" ceramics factory has been operating in Nove, in the province of Vicenza, since the early 20th century, under the direction of Nicolò Sebelin. In 1902, the sculptor Arturo Martini was hired as a young apprentice at the factory, where he became familiar with the material and created his first ceramics. In the first decade of the 20th century, Teodoro Sebelin, Nicolò's son, joined the factory and developed a passion for ceramics, but the outbreak of World War I forced the company to suspend production and Teodoro to leave for the front. At the end of the war, after various experiences in local factories, in 1921 Teodoro, together with two of his comrades-in-arms, Alessandro Zarpellon and Sebastiano Zanolli, also descendants of families of ceramists, re-established the factory under the name "Zanolli, Sebelin e Zarpellon." The company soon achieved considerable sales success on the domestic, European, and overseas markets, and by the mid-1930s, the factory employed eighty-five workers and produced over three thousand different models. In the early 1930s, the brothers Giuseppe and Antonio Perdomello, among others, worked for the company.


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