Description

Antique Italian marbleized fine erathenware Heater dating to the early 1800’s 🌿🔥

MEASURES:
📏 Dimensions: 5 1/2″ (14 cm) max wide, approximately 8 1/2″ (21.6 cm) tall

DESCRIPTION:
Discover the elegance of this rare antique Italian marbleized pottery portable heater—a charming relic from central Italy, it comes from Marche region, rich artistic heritage. I think it can be attributed to the Pesaro Manufacturing Benucci e Latti, dating to the early 1800’s, this small brazier or hand warmer exudes warmth and history.
The brazer has marbleized bottom with decorations of shells and raised medallions with female faces, terracotta color handle ending with mask motifs.
Benucci and Latti factory in Pesaro, was active in the Marche region from 1814 to 1880. A characteristic of this manufacturing, and more generally of 19th-century ceramic activity, is the production of “English-style” earthenware with porous and white paste, obtained from a mixture of white clays and calcined silica. This type of earthenware was used in England since the early 18th century and refined later through the research of Josiah Wedgwood.
There are also examples of production of marbleized ceramic pieces from this manufacture.
The beautifully colored marbleized faience pottery was developed around mid-18th century, it was naturally inspired by the colored soils in Italy and in France in Povence region (Apt and Uzes).
What is fascinating about this kind of marbled ceramics, is that the marbling effect achieved is from mixed earth. In other words, the ceramic itself is made up of different types of earth. When you consider the fact that each of the earths has a unique firing temperature, and also the difficulty factor involved in successfully firing a whole piece, it is quite remarkable. This is all in contrast to a marbling effect created by applying colored glazes to an existing, already fired piece of pottery, more like “painting” a marbleized look, often equally beautiful, but totally different. To figure out which technique was used to create a marbleized piece, look inside the piece. If it’s the same as the outside, it’s mixed earth. If it’s different, it’s been “decorated” on the exterior of the piece.

This rare and refined brazier is in good condition considering its age, there is a hairline on one side of the handle attach, the line is visible at close inspection in the interior and exterior side.
There are lacks of glazing around the foot base.

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