A rare Capodimonte teapot and cover, circa 1750

Possibly decorated by Maria Caselli, of bulbous shape with elongated inverted neck, the moulded spout painted with scattered flower sprays including roses and tulips, and insects after the drawings and watercolours by Joris Hoefnagel, the cover similarly decorated with two small beetles alternated by sprays of flowers, and applied with a rosebud finial, 15.3cm high, fleur-de-lys mark in blue enamel (handle restuck, cover finial restored) (2)

Provenance:
Fratelli Luzzatto, Milan (by 1960);
Italian private collection since the 1960s;
Thence by descent

Literature:
Giuseppe Morazzoni, Le Porcellane Italiane, vol. II (1960), pl. 303b;
Francesco Stazzi, Italian Porcelain, Pleasures and Treasures (1967), cat.no. XXXII

The fashion for depicting naturalistic insects on European porcelain was first introduced at Du Paquier, where porcelain was decorated with lifelike creatures based on the prints and copies of the work of Jacob Hoefnagel. In the inventory of the Du Paquier porcelain manufactory in the MAK there are individual sheets by Maria Sybilla Merian, whose engravings, like Josef Hoefnagel's, are rooted both in the natural sciences and in artistic depiction of the natural world. The prints also certainly reached the Doccia factory founded by the Marchese Ginori just before the founding of the Capodimonte factory.

Similar insects can be found on a snuff box in the Museo Duca di Martina, illustrated by Angela Caròla-Perrotti, p.239, cat. no. 182, plate XLVII and another, cat. no. 183, again in the Museo Duca di Martina, where the author attributes the decoration, at least on the inside of the box, to perhaps the most celebrated artist at Capodimonte, Giovanni Caselli. Maria Caselli was the niece of Giovanni Caselli, perhaps the best know painter at the Capodimonte factory. She herself became associated with detailed flower painting. A large and important Capodimonte service with insect decoration was sold in these rooms, 2 July 2019, lot 133.