Coffee pot, sugar bowl, and milk jug with daisies

This white porcelain set, consisting of a coffee pot, milk jug, and sugar bowl, is decorated in relief with bands of daisies on the body and handles shaped like twisted stems ending with a corolla. The three lids have bud-shaped knobs, each different from the others. 

Overall, the themes reflect the influence of English Modernism, which anticipates the new European Liberty style. However, the floral motif, cherished by the Pre-Raphaelite taste, is here still contained within a clearly defined band, following a more traditional pattern compared to the later developments of Art Nouveau. 

The Museo Ginori collections also preserve prototypes of a saucer and two cups with the same decoration (inv. 7452, 7453, 7454), designed around 1896 by the painter and teacher at the Museo Artistico Industriale in Rome, Alessandro Morani, for Baron Alberto Blanc. The designs – of which some watercolors exist with minor variations and are kept in a private collection – were probably created by Morani while he was involved in the refurbishment and modernization works of the villa of the Lezzani marquises on the Nomentana road, acquired by Blanc in the 1890s. During this renovation, the Ginori Manufactory also handled the production of raised decorative elements in maiolica for the exterior of the building.