"Double-walled" coffee pot with straight spout and ear-shaped handle. It presents a white-paste body without noticeable impurities, but has numerous firing cracks, with lead glazing that is vitreous and shiny.

The wall beneath the open-work is decorated with blue flowers executed with the "stampino" or stenciling technique, which was unique to the Doccia Manufactory. The external part, featuring open-work that allows the stenciling to be seen beneath, is formed of sprays of rose shoots and meadow flowers, that are interlaced to give a continuous lattice effect.

The double-wall typology, designed to avoid scalding the hands on account of the hot liquid contained in the vessel, springs from a cross between objects of Asian derivation and Roman diatreta vases. It was used at Doccia for a few years only, up to about 1755, after which production was abandoned due to the enormous difficulty of execution. The only exception was represented by the hand-warmers, which remained in production up to the 1760s, as demonstrated by the Manufactory's "Price List" drawn up by Jacopo Rendelli around 1760 (AGL, File nr. 138, sheet 6).

The shape of this coffee-pot recalls that of pouring vessels of Persian origin. Note the lack of slots for the safety tongues that would have formed part of the lid; furthermore, since the mouth displays complete and perfect glaze covering, this may actually have been a ewer (and thus not equipped with a lid) rather than a coffee pot.

In the 1743 inventory of the porcelain belonging to the inheritance of Guido Ottavio Mansi (ASL, Mansi Archives, File n. 5), reference is made to "6 porcelain cups with double grating" and a "double perforated soup bowl", without, however, specifying their origin.

That these may be manufacts of oriental origin can be excluded, as oriental objects were always identified precisely in all records; consequently, a putative attribution of these objects to the Doccia Manufactory - which cannot be made with reasonable certainty at this time due to the lack of documentary evidence - would allow double-walled pieces to be considered as belonging to the earliest production of the Ginori Manufactory. [AB]