Coffee pot with polychrome "black cockerel" decoration and bamboo shoots of oriental inspiration.

It presents a gray-paste body with numerous imperfections and shiny vitreous lead-glazing.

The pot has a snake-head spout without rounded pouring pipe; at the point of attachment to the body, the spout is given an ornate touch by the presence of volutes and a highly composite bridge of typically baroque taste.

The handle is ear-shaped and terminates with a hint of a volute. The lid, with a knob-shaped finial, is richly decorated and linked to the handle by a small chain.

A striking feature is the frieze displayed on the terminal part of the neck, recalling typologies that were characteristic of the Viennese Manufactory (1718/1744) of Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier (Sturm-Bednarczyk E., 1994, Files 47,74,75,84,126).

In particular, the "stylized sun" motif is known from a few pieces attributed directly to the hand of Karl Wendelin Anreiter von Ziernfeld, the leading decorator and master artist at the Florentine Manufactory between 1737 and 1746, or to that of his sons who likewise worked at Doccia (Biancalana A., in Ceramica Antica, October 1999, pp. 18-29; and also in Der Schlern, n. 74/2000, pp. 81-92). The pieces in question are: a small cup on display in Vienna at the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst (Ginori Lisci L., 1963, plate II), as well as the cup that probably bears the coat of arms of the Anreiter family (Burresi M., ed., 1998, pp. 92-93) and, finally, a cup showing a Chinese figure motif, with accompanying saucer of rather unusual shape (Levy S., 1968, plate LV).

The "cockerel" decoration was among the patterns in use at Doccia from the very earliest years of production; the painter Ferdinando Campostrini was one of its main authors (the motif was already used in production in 1747 and was extremely popular commercially, cf. AGL, Carlo Ginori Correspondence, period 1743-1748).

It was executed above all in blue, red and blue and gold, red and gold (at the end of the XVIIIth century), green and gold (quite rare), and black and gold. As regards the latter color combination, Ginori Lisci states in his fundamental 1963 work on the Florentine Manufactory that no objects bearing this decoration are extant. (Ginori Lisci L., 1963, pp. 38 and 132, note 28). The exhibition held in Pisa in 1998 showed a sauce jug, or sugar-pot decorated with "black cockerels" and gold, but it presented a quite different typology in comparison to the coffee pot displayed here ("La Manifattura Toscana dei Ginori. Doccia 1737 - 1791", 1998, pp. 70 and 135).

Another remarkable element of this coffee pot is the nature of the decoration, as it presents the single "fighting cockerel" motif and a bamboo shoot as opposed to the weeping willow that would later become the recurrent feature of this typology in the Doccia Manufactory.

Indeed, the shape and typology of this coffee pot appear to warrant the suggestion that it is almost a prototype of this kind of decoration. Furthermore, it is very carefully executed and far more richly painted than is the case for other objects dating from more or less the same period; it also presents a frieze clearly bringing to mind the Viennese model Anreiter had introduced at Doccia (recall that Karl Wendelin worked for several years at the Du Paquier Manufactory before moving to Florence). One may therefore advance the suggestion that it could be attributed to one of the members of the Anreiter family, possibly Anton, in view of his pictorial skills already demonstrated in the years in question. [AB]