Italian Porcelain, Unparalleled Beauty

The Capodimonte styles are highly sought after with the porcelain colors unusually vibrant and bold. The lavishly and opulently designed Capodimonte lamps are known to be adorned with three-dimensional figures, such as cherubs, angels, nudes, animals, and serpents. Lamps are known to have people and vegetation, too. Some lamps have figures raised away from the body of the porcelain lamp.

Fine quality Capodimonte porcelain lamps and other pieces are known to contain the artwork of the 18th century master sculptor Tagliolini. Many pieces have subtle details in hand painting.

History of Capodimonte

Though the history of Capodimonte can be said to start from 1700 when the research for porcelain production started, it was in 1743 that Charles, the King of Naples and Sicily built a small porcelain factory on a hill named Capodimonte near Naples. He later built a new porcelain factory in the Royal woods of Capodimonte.

During the French invasion of Naples in the late 18th century and the early 19th century, the porcelain production declined and 1818 marked the end of the Royal Factory of Capodimonte.

Capodimonte style porcelain pieces are still produced by a number of manufacturers in Italy today, using the Capodimonte ‘trademark’ in various forms, as it is not a patented or protected mark.

By the 1920s, it became very popular to convert the Capodimonte porcelain vases and other objects into Capodimonte lamps. This was done by adding bases, caps and other necessary accessories to change them into lamps. The electric lamps were just beginning to become popular and the practice of conversion caught on. Capodimonte porcelain items had always been popular, and especially at that time. The bases of the vases were drilled with a hole for the passage of a hollow tube, to hold the base, cap, and for concealment of the electric cable.

The Royal factory, in little more than 50 years of its existence, had left an indelible mark by producing the finest porcelain dinnerware with its unique style, and miniatures with detailed sculpture that were later converted to porcelain lamps. The legacy of the Capodimonte porcelain is the very fine and exquisite lamps that surpass the greatest of the European as well as the Chinese porcelain lamps and other items.

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The Features Of Capodimonte Porcelain Lamps

Capodimonte porcelain lamps come with many features, such as hand-applied roses, hand painted lamps, and lamps with Roman figures, among others. Many lamps with Roman figures are the converted porcelain vases of the 1930s, done in soft pinks, yellows, and greens, with lavish gold highlights. The molded figures of Roman soldiers and women, bathing in the river, are all discreetly draped.

The most special aspects of certain lamps are the hand applied and hand made roses and rosebuds on the top of the lamps. The lamps with stylized and embossed people and roses on the white and other colorful porcelain backgrounds are magnificent pieces of Italian workmanship. Certain lamps having figures and flowers have 24 karat gold painting outlining them.

The main bodies of certain lamps are urn shaped and some have bodies sitting on bases of different shapes and styles, such as dolphin bases. Some porcelain Capodimonte lamps sit on an ornate brass base featuring four dolphins.

Many lamps with figurines are made of white pierced porcelain with hand applied grass and flowers. The porcelain figurines are very finely molded, intricately detailed, and hand-painted. Some have a couple of children sitting or standing on the grass with a bouquet of hand made flowers in their hands. The porcelain lamps sit on double bases of filigree brass and are footed.

The most striking features of most Capodimonte porcelain lamps are the outstanding and unusual shades, made of silk and other materials to match the color of the porcelain. Some shades, with scallops at the top and bottom, are made of patterned moiré (watered silk).

From 1759 to 1780, the Royal Factory in Naples originally painted or impressed the Capodimonte logo - the Crown and Neapolitan N - on porcelain and ceramics they produced. This was synonymous with the finest quality Neapolitan porcelain of that period.

Such products are very rare today, and many porcelain factories around the time of the Royal Factory had their own marks for identification. The Capodimonte logo seen on porcelain lamps today is no guarantee of the quality. In fact, it is no guarantee that the said product is porcelain at all!

Today, most pieces of Capodimonte porcelain artwork are available in antique shops, or with the collectors. Care needs to be taken when you wish to purchase the exquisite pieces of Capodimonte lamps that they are genuine Italian artwork, and not porcelain lamps styled on Capodimonte artwork