Antique Grottaglie Plate 1800s
ambiantA 19th-century scalloped-rim plate from Grottaglie, Puglia, in Southern Italy.
This piece belongs to a type of pottery known as robba bianca, characterised by its ivory-toned white tin glaze. While made for everyday use, it represents a more carefully finished form of humble folk pottery.
The gently undulating rim is one of the distinctive features often found in white-glazed ceramics from this region, adding a soft rhythm to the otherwise unadorned surface.
The ivory-white glaze has a quiet beauty, while the chips and losses around the rim have become part of its character. They give the plate a rustic, timeworn presence that speaks to its life as an object of daily use.
- Size
- φ28 × H5.5 cm
- Country
- Italy
- Origin
- Grottaglie, Puglia
- Estimated age
- 19th Century.
- No.
- AN-8093
Robba Bianca
"Robba bianca," meaning "white things" in Italian, is a significant category in the ceramic history of Grottaglie, Puglia, in Southern Italy. It symbolizes the technological maturity and refinement of lifestyle culture since the late 16th century.
Its foundation lies in a production system connected to the Majolica technique, which involves applying an opaque white glaze containing tin oxide (tin-glaze) and completing the piece through two firings. However, unlike the ornate Majolica known for its painted decorations, Robba Bianca suppresses decorativeness, positioning itself as a regional and practical evolution that finds value in the form of the vessel itself and the texture of the white glaze.
The beauty of this style lies in the contrast between the strong red earth (terra rossa) nurtured by the Puglia land and the soft white glaze that embraces it. The warmth of the clay faintly perceived beneath the glaze layer, or the reddish-brown clay body that peeks through the rim and foot after years of use, quietly tells the story of this land's unique expression of white.
LOCATION
Grottaglie, Puglia / ItalyGrottaglie, Puglia
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