La caratterizzazione dei massi e delle vernici della porcellana Ginori nel Settecento tra notizie d’archivio e diagnostica

The first period of Ginori (1737–1757), under the guidance of Marquis Carlo, is characterised by a constant experimentation of raw materials and the most suitable compositions for the manufacture of porcelain, as demonstrated by the “Museo delle terre” and the related “Catalogo”,1 but above all the considerable quantity of recipes recorded in the papers of the Archivio Ginori Lisci.2 The lack of optimal materials to obtain a good quality porcelain justifies the countless tests. Despite this abundance of documentation, some aspects of production still need clarification. In particular, the difficulty of matching the numerous recipes for bodies and glazes to the production of Ginori at various moments in its history persists. To try to fill, at least in part, this gap, MIC Faenza has launched, together with the CNR-ISSMC of Faenza, an initial diagnostic campaign on a core of works produced during the direction of the Marquis Carlo, belonging to the collections of the Faenza museum.3 On the occasion of the current exhibition, it was possible to expand this initial study with the sampling and subsequent analysis of a group of works from the Museo Ginori in Sesto Fiorentino, dating back mainly to the period of the Marquis Lorenzo’s management. In this context,4 we present the first results of the analyses, placing them in relation to the information on the raw materials (the earths), on the bodies and on the glazes that can be obtained from the published archival documents