The Nineteenth-Century Table

After the ostentation of the Baroque and the whimsicalities of rococo, the arrival of a neoclassical style in the nineteenth century came as a revolutionary lesson in restraint. This can be seen in the fabulous service “with lilac band, and animals and ornaments in gold”, made for the hunting lodge of the Real Sito di Portici (Naples), the last great dinner service made by the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea of Naples before it closed in 1807. Over the following years, the original collection in soft-paste porcelain was added to many times, both with hard-paste porcelain from the Poulard-Prad factory at the time of Gioachino Murat, when the service was in the Reggia di Caserta, and in around 1825, with earthenware items from the factory of Cherinto Del Vecchio.