Porcelain in Venice: the story of Giovanni Vezzi, a reckless pioneer

The history of porcelain in Venice started early, very early. This is the story of the first adventure, which ended, I am afraid, untimely. But still worth telling, as it is an inspiring story of industrial espionage, private entrepreneurship and generational conflict.

Let’s start with some chronology for porcelain in Venice

Fascinated by Asian porcelain, Europeans tried hard to find out the secret of this marvel, also labelled as “white gold”. In Meissen, a city in Saxony, Germany, Johann Friedrich Böttger discovered the process to obtain this transparent hard veil of whiteness. It was thanks to this inventor and alchemist in Meissen that the very first porcelain factory in Europe opened. The date? Well, founded in 1710, but not producing until 1713.

The second one, founded by Claudius Innocentius du Paquier, began its production in 1718 in Vienna. How would the Viennese learn how to make it? The secret of porcelain was likely revealed by Christoph Conrad Hunger who left Meissen and chose to move to the Hapsburg empire.

Giovanni Vezzi, the first company producing porcelain in Venice (and in Italy)

The third porcelain manufacturing company in the history of Europe opened two years later in Venice, in 1720. It would be the first ever in the Italian peninsula. 

It looks like there was the same “traitor”. Again, Christoph Conrad Hunger. To be precise, Hunger was an expert of porcelain gilding. Some historians claim he had wormed the secret of making porcelain out of poor Böttger in Meissen after getting him drunk. As Vienna did not welcome him the way he had hoped, he finally chose to move to Venice. 

There he met a young man, Giovanni Vezzi, the son of a very wealthy Venetian. We do not know if Giovanni Vezzi realized that maybe Hunger was not the great expert he believed he was. But it must have been so tempting to try such an adventure. Can you imagine the thrill? White gold, a perfect imitation of the very expensive porcelain coming from China. A secret that had been finally revealed after centuries.

We can almost say, true avant-garde. 

A hazardous enterprise

Giovanni Vezzi must have realized it was hazardous. 

Where would he find the “kaolin” clay? When Böttger discovered kaolin clay was the key to make porcelain, it was such a rare earth that the word he used for this ingredient, was the Chinese word. Originally, the word sounded gāolǐngtǔ, taken from the name of the village of Gaoling (“High Ridge”), now part of Jiangxi Province’s Jingdezhen Prefecture.

The solution the young Venetian found was to smuggle kaolin from Germany. Easy, well, not that easy. Certainly risky (and expensive).

Where would he find the capital to invest? To build the furnace, to pay the employees…? His father, of course! Francesco Vezzi was a man who had become very wealthy as a goldsmith. His wealth had allowed him to buy the Golden Book title of Venetian aristocracy in 1713, financing the war against the Ottoman in Corfu. He had also bought himself an imposing palace not too far from Rialto.

The father decided to finance, kaolin was smuggled and Venice had its first porcelain manufacturing company the same year when the Florian Cafe opened, when exotic drinks such as chocolate and coffee started getting known and needed cups and bowls and dishes and saucers. After all, it had been Marco Polo, who in the 13th century had mentioned porcelain in his travels in the Far East for the very first time in Europe! So why not porcelain produced in Venice?

A short but precious production

Contemporaries described Vezzi porcelain from Venice as beautiful as Japanese porcelain. Gold, wonderful patterns, beautiful glaze. The technical expertise lined up with the choice of refined  patterns, some inspired by oriental motifs, some influenced by the Venetian silver and goldsmiths’ taste. In the pieces you can find at Ca’ Rezzonico, the museum of the 18th Century in Venice you can see leaves and flowers, classical figures recalling ancient mythology, also on a plate you can see St Mark’s square —although the museum catalogue is not clear about the origin of this last piece.

How did it end? 

Seven years later, stifled by debts, no profit on the horizon, Giovanni Vezzi was forced by his father to close down and to demolish the furnace. Short and intense, just like porcelain, precious and fragile. 

Some say Giovanni had no entrepreneurial ability. The general impression is that it was really difficult to compete with the other European porcelain companies, all financed by emperors or princes, whose goal was certainly not to look for profits. Vezzi had everything on his shoulders. Or maybe he was too much of a pioneer. Who knows? Maybe if his father had not clipped his son’s wings so early… As a matter of fact, in 1765 Geminiano Cozzi started making porcelain in Venice and, well, it worked.

Porcelain in Venice nowadays

Nowadays in Venice manufacturing porcelain is still an ongoing activity run by women. Adele Stefanelli and Diana Dethlefsen are the ones I have become more familiar with in the last years, both of them feature in the Homo Faber arts and crafts excellence catalogue.

Diana Dethlefsen is originally from Germany, she discovered her passion for porcelain in Vienna and finally moved to Venice to open her porcelain laboratory in Santa Croce, near Campo San Giacomo dall’Orio. She chose Venice, a city she loves and where she feels at home.

Adele Stefanelli’s steps instead moved from Venice, where her roots are, towards Geneva and then Tuscany, but also to Korea and China, where she experienced different porcelain techniques in depth. Adele’s laboratory is in Venice, on the island of Giudecca, in the ex CNOMV space where many artisans have found a place where to work.

Nomadic lives, pivoting around the cosmopolitan nature porcelain and finally landing in Venice.

Diana Dethlefsen and her Venice inspired porcelain objects

Diana Dethlefsen’s technique is based on liquid porcelain poured in molds she makes herself. The creative process starts from observing Venice. Her collections are inspired by what she sees in the city she loves. You will find the “mar” (sea) collection, inspired by the sea: brushstrokes in blue cover bowls and cups which reflect the movements of the water and clouds above.

Or the “mercato” collection where she created molds with the shape of the vegetables from the island of Sant’Erasmo, i.e. eggplants, tomatoes and “castraure”, the celebrated baby artichokes.

And what about the “ombra” series, where you find the classical wine glass of a Venetian bacaro?

Her colors remind of the green waters of the lagoon or the pink Verona marble slabs of the Doge’s palace.
Her website: www.handcraftedporcelain.com

Adele Stefanelli and her hand-made Venetian porcelain 

Adele Stefanelli’s approach reveals a constant search for perfection. Her cups, bowls, tea pots, plates and saucers or vases are thrown on the wheel. The forms she achieves require a lot of concentration so to reach a perfect balance. Her glazes are also personally composed. Adele develops her own formulas, as a true alchemist. Some light green shades, some light pink, some light golden beige combine with shiny surfaces playing with sun rays entering her laboratory. 

Once Adele gave me a wonderful porcelain cup she had made. I held it in my hands. It was so thin, so delicate, in the transparency some flowers leaves emerged contrasting with the light. “Use it, please”, she said, meaning everyday objects need to be beautiful and beautiful objects need to be used. Her website: www.adelestefanelli.com

Is it easy to work as porcelain makers in Venice?

It is not easy to work as porcelain makers in Venice. Both ateliers guarantee isolation, calm and silence. Unless you use an electric oven, you need a gas oven, the permission for a chimney flue. Affordable rents, of course, in a city where the transformation of much space is focused on tourism. Both Dethlefsen and Stefanelli talked about the fortune they had when they found the place for their valuable work. And we are lucky they chose Venice to create.

by Luisella Romeo
registered tourist guide in Venice, Italy
www.seevenice.it