1960s Italian Modernist Cabochon Jeweled Art Pottery Vase, Attributed to Fratelli Fanciullacci

Details

Description

A wonderfully exuberant mid-century Italian art pottery vase or cachepot, circa 1960s, attributed to Fratelli Fanciullacci of Montelupo, Tuscany.

The … Read more A wonderfully exuberant mid-century Italian art pottery vase or cachepot, circa 1960s, attributed to Fratelli Fanciullacci of Montelupo, Tuscany.

The substantial rounded vessel is covered in an extraordinary hand-worked decoration of raised, jewel-like ceramic cabochons in turquoise blue, citron yellow, ruby and aubergine, scattered across a richly mottled ground of turquoise, sea green, white, gray and charcoal. Each applied medallion has its own swirling, variegated glaze, giving the surface an almost gem-set quality.

A particularly striking deep wine-red scalloped rim crowns the vessel. The repeating rounded lobes continue onto the interior of the rim, while the interior itself is finished in a contrasting creamy white glaze. The combination of applied relief, irregular hand-worked surfaces and heavily pooled, reactive glazes gives the piece tremendous depth and sculptural presence.

The aesthetic is characteristic of the adventurous postwar ceramics produced around Montelupo Fiorentino, particularly the work of Fratelli Fanciullacci. The Fanciullacci factory was known for highly varied, fashion-forward ceramics incorporating colorful abstract decoration, tactile surfaces and experimental glazing. Many pieces were not factory-signed and instead bear only handwritten “ITALY” and production numbers, as does this example. Documented Fanciullacci pieces with this marking convention are known.

The underside is hand-marked “60/112 ITALY.” We have not located a documented factory reference definitively connecting model/decor number 60/112 to Fanciullacci, so the attribution is offered on the basis of the form, clay, construction, glazing, applied decoration and marking convention rather than as a definitive factory identification. Similar slash-number/ITALY markings are also found on other 1960s ceramics associated with the Montelupo pottery tradition.

With its lavish polychrome surface and almost jeweled or cabochon-studded appearance, the piece bridges Italian Mid-Century Modern, Mediterranean Modern and expressive studio pottery. It would be especially striking as a standalone sculptural object, cachepot or vase in a collected modernist, maximalist or Mediterranean interior.

Italian Modern, Mid-Century Modern, Mediterranean Modern, Modernist, Studio Pottery, Montelupo, Fratelli Fanciullacci, sculptural pottery, polychrome, relief, applied decoration, cabochon, jeweled, turquoise, aubergine, citron. See less