The production of ceramic objects for advertising or more generally decorated with the logos of hotels, restaurants, bars, and venues of all kinds, is very common in the history of the Manifattura di Doccia. The Museo Ginori collection includes several white porcelain plaques with examples of decal decorations for custom orders.
Plates like this one - on which various examples of logos (hotels and bars, but also of liquor companies, such as the distillery of “Protti e Menini” in Bologna) are applied - served as samples for internal use or to show clients. Each decoration was classified in a numerical inventory, whose number is shown adjacent to the logo on the plate. The logos were applied on porcelain tableware using decals, that is, decorations printed on paper by lithography or engraved metal plates.
The reproductions were sprinkled with collodion to create a film that, separated from the paper support, kept the decoration applied on the porcelain intact. During firing, the collodion burned and released the decoration, which penetrated under the crystalline coating of the artifact. Through this process, uniform decorations and better qualitative results in rendering the minute details of the various logos, difficult to realize with hand painting were achieved. This technique also allowed serial and standardized production that significantly reduced production costs.
