Majolica

Look in any guide book and you will see a rooster pitcher that has been made in Deruta the ceramics capital of Italy.  A small town outside Perugia, here in Umbria, the clay in Deruta has been made into vessels since ancient times. For many years during the 15th and 16th century, the plates that were made in Deruta had the likeness of beautiful women gracing them.  Today you can go to Deruta, and if you are on a huge bus tour, you will be taken to places that just sell stamped pottery, meaning that it is poured into molds, baked and then painted by machine. The true artisans in Deruta are clearly annoyed that the ceramics in Deruta are represented by the stamped and machine made articles that you find in discount shops, since the artisans will hand throw, and hand paint each piece that they sell.

 Today at the enoteca I had lunch with these gentlemen.  L to R, Carlo Angelini, Luca owner of Majoliche Fanny, Roberto and a friend from Todi.  Luca's shop is just up the street from Enoteca Properzio, and since I hadn't been before, I thought it was time to explore.  The store is amazing, and Luca said that he has another showroom in Deruta that is twice as large.  The typical Deruta style is represented, but his artisans are allowed to follow their hearts, and design what they feel.  I love that!  

Typical Deruta Style

These are sets of dinnerware; the landscape dishes come with different scenes of Umbria and Tuscany on each plate.  Editors note, when I looked at the top shelf I said, "red is a hard color to fire" Luca said, oh, no we do it well.  Yeah, they do!

My photos don't do these justice, but they are exquisite.

 

They do tables which are amazing, too!

Wouldn't this look nice on my patio?

These are quite different from the brilliant colors on the other plates

I like the mix and match aspect of this

These almost look like Quimper

Gorgeous sun flowers, who wouldn't want to eat dinner off of these plates?

Love these serving platters

And my favorite, the Poppy dishes!

My day at school got better today, at least I could follow along, and felt a bit more with it.  But, I was late getting back to the enoteca because of this traffic jam. 

I have no idea what the next days will bring, but that is part of the adventure.  Wishing you a buona sera  from Umbria. 
If you are interested in Majolica, Luca's store is Majoliche Fanny di Pimpinelli, e-mail:  fanny.deruta@alice.it They are located on Corso Cavour in Spello, or in Piazza dei Consoli in Deruta.