A very rare Vezzi teapot and cover, circa 1725. Photo Sotheby's

each piece pencilled in iron-red and picked out in gilding with two groups of flowering plants, the rim with a jewelled border, the flutes of the short moulded spout also picked out in iron-red and gilding, the cover secured with a silver chain; 2.0; 14.5cm., 5 3/4in wide. Estimate 20,000-30,000 GBP

PROVENANCE: Christie's London, 5 October 1981, lot 50

LITTERATURE: L. Melegati, op. cit., Milan, 1998, n.25, p.100.

NOTE: The decoration on this teapot is extremely rare and was in use at the manufactory at a very early date of production.
The flattened onion shape is unique and can be compared with the teapot in Cà Rezzonico (L. Melegati, op. cit., Milan, 1998, n.29).

Sotheby's. The Collection of Giovanni and Gabriella Barilla. Londres | 14 mars 2012

It was Christopher Conrad Hunger, one of Boettgers's co-workers called by Vezzi in 1722, that brought these trade secrets to Venice and hence established what the documents of the time call "the most excellent House of Vezzi". That same house of Vezzi went on manufacturing until 1727 when Francesco Vezzi, chief financier of the project, not only closed the factory down but actually demolished it as a results of debts incurred by his son Giovanni. In its active years though, the Vezzi firm was first at the island of the Giudecca and subsequently at the so-called "Casin degli Spiriti" in the Venetian parish of Madonna dell'Orto. Their porcelain with its "Venezia" trademark, has a hard pure translucency that one has to go to Meissen itself to find elsewhere. And not only the impasto is exceptional, so is the imagination that has been put into the decorations, and these make of Vezzi china ware masterpieces on European scale.

Vezzi pieces are rare though, amounting some 300 in all and most of these are parts of tea services, but there are also bowls, vases, plates and coffee pots. What we have no certainty about is whether there was any figure-work done. Vezzi vessels sometimes took the silverware of the time as its model, but the rotundity of the teapots and the tall slender cups without handles are inspired by Maissen ware. Decorations include animals, scenes from mythology and crests of the families who ordered the work. There are also Chinese and oriental motifs. Some pieces are not decorated but in all likelihood these are unfinished work dating from the sudden closure of the factory. (Source: http://www.venicefoundation.org)