Deux rares assiettes napolitaines, Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, du service Farnese, circa 1784-88

Two rare Naples, Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea plates, from the Farnese service, circa 1784-88

En suite with the previous lot, each painted in the centre with a circular view titled in iron-red on the reverse, within a gilt foliate border, the rim with four oval cameo medallions inscribed 'MVSEO FARNESIANO' within gilt laurel wreaths against a green ribbon entwined with gilt foliage, gilt-edged rim, 25.6cm diam., crowned FRF monograms in iron-red, incised marks (minor wear) (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Giuseppe Beccadelli, Marchese di Sambuca (1726-1813);
With Lukacs-Donath, Rome (one, paper label to reverse);
Private European Collection since the 1980s, thence by descent to the present owner

Literature
A. Caròla-Perrotti, La Porcellana Della Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea (1771-1806), Naples, 1978, TAV. XXXII-XXXV;
A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane Dei Borbone Di Napoli, Capodimonte E Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea 1743-1806, Naples, 1986, pp. 376-380;
A. Caròla-Perrotti, 'The Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea (1771-1806)', Andreina d'Agliano (ed.), Italian porcelain in the Lokar collection, Milan, 2013, pp. 239-246;
Acton, I Borboni di Napoli, 1734-1825, Florence, 1997, pp. 195-196, 202, 210, 217-224

The views titled in red on the reverse are:
Ingresso della Grotta di Pausilippo
Veduta della Piazza I.tra il Largo del Castello

Recent research by Angela Caròla-Perrotti has shown that the service was owned by Giuseppe Beccadelli, Marchese di Sambuca, Ambassador in Vienna for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and Minister of State between 1776 and 1786.

A pair of glass coolers and a pair of baskets from the service were sold in these rooms from the Fiordalisi Collection, 7 December 2017, lots 100 and 101. A plate from the same collection also sold in these rooms, lot 102.

When the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea factory opened in 1771-72 after the closure of the factory at Capodimonte, the young King Ferdinand IV of Naples was in his early twenties and had a blossoming enthusiasm for porcelain production, a view which had been discouraged by the statesman Bernardo Tanucci, who had overseen the Regency council of the King in his youth. In the following years, and with the encouragement of Giuseppe Beccadelli, Principe di Camporeale (1726-1813), the diplomat and newly appointed Primo Segretari di Stato from 1776, the King took an increasing interest in the factory. In 1779 the Marchese Domenico Venuti (1745-1817) was appointed as Direttore Interino of the factory, a role that would combine administrative duties and artistic direction.

The 'Servizio Farnesiano', or 'Farnese service', was the first to be produced at the factory featuring landscape after the famous five-volume publication of the 'Illustrations de Voyages pittoresques de Naples et de Sicile' of 1781 to 1786, by Abbé de Saint Non.

Jean-Claude Richard, Abbe de Saint Non (1727-91) travelled to Rome in 1759 to study art and architecture, and it is here that he met Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Hubert Robert who were to contribute drawings to the Voyages pittoresque. In the following year he travelled on to Naples and the surrounding archaeological sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum.

As most of the Factory documents referring to the service are lost, the identity of the patron who commissioned the service was unknown until it was discovered in recent research carried out by Angela Caròla-Perrotti, which she presented in the lecture 'The Farnese Service and the Neapolitan 'Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea': a secret revealed', at Art Antiques London, 16 June 2012.

Piazza di Lago Castello:
Tight glaze cracks in the well (original condition) and scattered tiny firing flaws and some surface scuffs overall (discoloured) see catalogue illustration, all original to the plate.

Posilipo:
Small original chip to rim caused at firing, when the plate was removed from its kiln supports or prongs (0.4x 0.2cm). There is a tiny speck of gilding missing from the edge of the rim at 3.30 o'clock. There are a few scattered miniscule spots of wear to the enamel decoration of the medallion in the centre, and a few scattered tiny scuffs to the unpainted glaze surface overall.