The ware made here is said to be recognized by "a pale buff-colored paste, and great richness and purity of the glaze." Still none but an expert--a person who has made these productions a study--could distinguish them from those made at some other Italian factories.
FAENZA.--Under the name of _Faenza_, an old town of Roman Italy, all sorts of waifs and strays which have no other home are likely to be classed. Its productions have no such peculiarities as mark those of Urbino, Gubbio, and some other Italian "botegas." But for the antiquity and extent of its potteries, and also because it seems to have given the name "_faience_" to all earthen-ware pottery made in France, it has a certain importance. I therefore give a single extract from what Mr. Fortnum has written about it. As there are a considerable number of these druggist's pots (see Fig. 64) in this country, the matter may be of interest. He writes:
"From an early period Faenza seems to have produced a large number of electuary-pots and pharmacy-bottles; a pair are in the Hôtel Cluny, one bearing the name FAENZA, the other 1500. Many of these vases are decorated in the style known as _a quartiere_, being divided into compartments, painted in bright yellow, etc., on dark blue, with foliated and other ornament, and usually having a medallion with profile head or subject on one side, under which the name of the drug in Gothic lettering is inscribed on a ribbon. A curious example is in the British Museum: a large flask-shaped bottle of dark-blue ground with yellow leafage and with twisted handles, upon the medallion of which is represented a bear clasping a column, with the inscription, '_et sarrimo boni amici_,' allusive, in all probability, to the reconciliation of the rival houses of Orsini and Colonna in 1517.
"We would here refer to the frequent occurrence on these vases, as occasionally upon other pieces, of pharmaceutical and ecclesiastical signs, letters, etc., surmounted by the archiepiscopal cross and other emblems which we believe have reference to the uses of monastic and private pharmacies for which the services were made, and not to be confounded, as has been too frequently the case, with the marks of _boteghe_ or of the painters of the piece. These emblems have no other value to us than the clew which they might afford to patient investigation of the locality and brotherhood of the conventual establishment to which they may have belonged, and among the archives of which may be recorded the date and the fabrique by which they were furnished. But what are of far greater interest are those admirable early pieces, painted by ceramic artists of the first rank, who, beyond a rare monogram or date, have left no record of their place or name; and whose highly-prized works, for their authors are several, are jealously guarded in our public and private museums. Some of these, with reasonable probability, are believed to have been executed at Faenza. Several examples are preserved, of an early character, perhaps the work of one hand, who marked them on the back with a large 'M' crossed by a paraph. They are usually plateaux with raised centre, on which is a portrait-head, or shallow dishes with flat border. Variations of the letter 'F' are found on pieces, some of which are fairly ascribable to this fabrique; but we need not point out the fact that many other localities of the manufacture can claim the same for their initial letter, and that the characteristics and technical qualities of the pieces themselves are a necessary test.