Antiques – Italian Style

In the antiques world, there is a great deal of talk about American, English, French and German items, but little is said about Italian antiques. This may have to do with U.S. trade practices over the years. Italian items may have found favor across Europe, but not that many of them made their way here. This is unfortunate, because Italian antiques are invariably beautiful, exquisitely made, and surprisingly affordable for their age.
If French is the language of the decorative arts, Italian is surely the soul. The French were just beginning to move on from painting animals on cave walls when the Italians were already building Rome, the city that would rule the world.
The Romans spread their style throughout their Empire, and when Rome fell, Europe descended into what we now call the Dark Ages. When it re-emerged in the 1400s, it would again be in Italy, with the Renaissance, literally a “re-birth” of the Roman ideals of order, balance, harmony, precision and craftsmanship.
Among the Italian decorative arts you might find in antique shops these days, majolica pottery and Venetian glass are probably the most popular. I have included some photographs of older examples of both these with this column. There is a wider range items and prices available in the shops.
Majolica is a colorful earthenware pottery with a glaze that contains a tin or lead oxide, giving it a lustrous finish. This kind of pottery is also called faience, because the Italians initially made it primarily in the city of Feanza. During the Renaissance, the city Florence so dominated production, that the colors and motifs they employed are still being used today.
Other Italian ceramics to look for in the shops include: faience from Deruta and Nove, art pottery (often red ware) sculpture from San Geminiano, Capodimonte from Naples, and the fine porcelain of Richard Ginori.
Venice dominated the production of glass throughout Europe for centuries. One of the ways they accomplished that was by making prisoners of the glassblowers on the island of Murano. That way they kept a monopoly on all their special glassmaking techniques.
We usually reserve the term Venetian glass for delicately sculpted items or those with fancy, labor-intensive techniques, like millifiori (thousand flowers), lattice and ribbon work. Heavy, solid glass items are referred to as Murano glass.
No discussion of Italian antiques would be complete without mentioning religious art. You can see the devotion in many of these works, so lovingly executed in whatever the medium.
Ancient Roman households set up shrines in their homes to their personal gods, the lares and penates, patrons of their families and towns. The tradition continued well into the Christian era. In fact, a famous such shrine is set up in homes across America every year. It’s the Nativity set, first introduced by St. Francis of Assisi, in Italy.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is the author of “The Antiques Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your comments, questions and appraisal requests to: aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.