Capodimonte's name gets attached to a lot of things, but the mark on the base here (a crown over the letter N, with "900" and "Capodimonte Italy") points to the twentieth-century Italian revival wares that took the original eighteenth-century factory's decorative language and ran with it, rather than to the original Royal factory itself. Worth knowing before anyone gets carried away with the history.
What it lacks in true age it makes up for in ambition. The centre holds a mythological scene, a woman in flowing pink drapery among putti and trailing vines, painted in soft washes of pink, green and gold against a pale ground. Around it, eight scalloped panels alternate between more figural vignettes in the same Bacchic vein and open scrollwork pierced clean through the porcelain, gilded along every raised edge. The whole thing rests on three small feet, tipping it up slightly for display rather than flat use.
It's a piece built entirely for looking at rather than serving from, and the combination of relief modelling, piercing and hand-applied gilding gives it a lot more presence on a shelf or wall than its size alone would suggest.
Condition notes
Good vintage condition with age-related wear. There is rubbing and loss to the gilding, particularly around the outer edge and raised areas, together with some surface marks and minor wear to the painted decoration. A fine hairline is visible running through part of the pale turquoise inner border. There are minor irregularities and signs of wear to the underside and feet consistent with age and use. The old metal hanging wire remains attached to the reverse.
