Unrecorded handbill: A new material for copying recently excavated antiquities.

Name: Unrecorded handbill: A new material for copying recently excavated antiquities.
SKU: 0045

[Neoclassicism] / [Ephemera] / Migliuolo, Domenico / Migliuolo, Raffaele. Avviso. I Fratelli Migliuolo Fabricanti di Terraglia Strada Marinella n.o 8, avendo inventata una terra imitante il Bronzo nel suono, e colore naturalmente… [Naples]: [s.n.], [c. 1827]. [16.2 x 11.3 cm], (1) f. letterpress handbill. Minor wrinkling and toning, “Domenico, e Raffaele Migliuolo” written in ink in bottom margin.

Unrecorded letterpress handbill (c. 1827) in which the Neapolitan earthenware manufactures Fratelli Migliuolo advise the public (and artistic rivals, no doubt) that they have developed a new clay which imitates both the sound and color of bronze (“una terra imitante il Bronzo nel suono, e colore naturalmente”) and that can be used to make replicas or imitations (or forgeries?) of recently excavated ancient artifacts (“a ben imitare tutto ciò, che si ha dagli antichi Scavi”). The wording here both evokes the immediacy of a Neoclassicism fueled by ongoing excavations of Etruscan tombs on the Italian peninsula and reminds us that connoisseurs of antiquities and their modern iterations relied on their ears as much as their eyes in evaluating a piece.

In the bottom margin of the sheet is written “Domenico, e Raffaele Migliuolo,” either in the hand of one of the brothers or of an interested client making a note to himself. Domenico and Raffaele are recorded as working together on earthenware at least as early as 1809 (Donatone, pp. 73-81).

In December of 1827 the Fratelli Migliuolo were granted a patent of sorts to use their ‘bronze’ clay in cookware (“applicabile specialmente a’ vasi da cuocer vivande,” in Collezione delle leggi e de’ decreti reali del regno delle Due Sicilie. Anno 1827, p. 264), but apparently they soon realized the material’s potential in imitating ancient artifacts and advertised this use in the handbill offered here. At the Naples Exposition of 1832 the Fratelli Migliuolo showed items in a material they called “terra metallica,” namely a clock and a statue of the god Asclepius (“Una statua rappresentante Esculapio di terra metallica,” “Una orologiera di terra metallica,” in Elenco di saggi de’ prodotti della industria nazionale presentati nella solenne esposizione de’ 30 Maggio 1832, p. 55).

The handbill is not recorded in OCLC, KVK, or OPAC.

* L. Mosca, Napoli e l’arte ceramica: Dal XIII al XX secolo (1963); G. Donatone, La Terraglia Napoletana (1782-1860) (1991); C. Gambaro, “Due copie di vasi antichi della collezione di Domenico Comparetti,” Prospettiva, nos. 75-76 (1994), pp. 77-84.

$625.00