A Royal Pottery Mirror Frame

A moulded and shaped frame, made of white glazed faience, consisting of five parts fastened together with screws and supported on a wooden board with the same format. This mirror frame is highly shaped, with a French-influenced rocaille decoration, consisting of boys, scrolls, shells, plant motifs and garlands of flowers. The whole frame is crowned by the Portuguese Royal Coat of Arms surmounted by a closed crown. The Royal Pottery Factory in Rato in Lisbon, founded in 1767 at the initiative of the Marquis of Pombal, was one of the factories of the core industries and applied arts that arose in Lisbon in the neighbourhood of Rato. During the first phase of its operation from 1767 to 1771, the factory was run by the Italian Tomás Brunetto, who was succeeded by the Portuguese master potter Sebastião Inácio de Almeida until 1779, when the factory fell into almost complete disuse.