Fruit bowl decorated with an undergrowth scene

The white fluted porcelain fruit bowl is decorated with a woodland undergrowth scene populated by a lizard, two snails, some butterflies, a wasp, and a snake. 

The decoration of this tray, signed and dated 1746, is the work of Anton Stephan Carl Anreiter, son of Carl Wendelin, who in 1737 was invited to Doccia by Carlo Ginori to work as chief decorator. 

The composition, aside from some variations, can be traced back to a painting by the Belgian artist Karl Wilhelm de Hamilton, now in a private collection, and was perhaps known to Anton Stephan through his father, who had worked extensively in Vienna as a decorator at the Du Paquier factory. It is certain that another painting by de Hamilton was used as a model for the decoration of a second fruit bowl made at Doccia by Anreiter, now in a private collection. 

The date of the execution of the piece coincides with Carlo Ginori’s appointment as governor of Livorno and the Anreiter’s definitive return to Vienna. The creation of this object - certainly conceived as an artwork - is linked to the inauguration, which took place in 1746, of a gallery of pieces exhibited to the public at the Villa of Doccia, which was mentioned by the English historian Thomas Salmon in 1757. That gallery, then used to show customers the finest production of the manufactory, was the first nucleus of the future Museo Ginori.