Huge wall plate with fish -- Italy? San Marino?

Lovely, big wall plate, 36 cm diameter, back unmarked.

Looks very 1950s/60s Italian to me, probably from San Marino?

Thanks!
Michael

looks like lettering around the edge on the decorated side , or am I imagining it

Thanks, Ed -- definately no letters, just irregularities in the glaze...

Michael

Italian pottery would be far more collectable had they marked it for identification

rocco wrote: probably from San Marino?

I'd agree.

dantheman wrote:Italian pottery would be far more collectable had they marked it for identification

Quality pieces were well marked , but the run of the mill tourist stuff we see most of was just churn them out quick and sell them cheap , bish bosh , but I agree a little hint of makers wouldv'e ben nice .

i want !!

Very nice

big ed wrote:

dantheman wrote:Italian pottery would be far more collectable had they marked it for identification

Quality pieces were well marked , but the run of the mill tourist stuff we see most of was just churn them out quick and sell them cheap , bish bosh , but I agree a little hint of makers wouldv'e ben nice .

so can we assume that all unmarked Italian pottery is of poor quality?

dantheman wrote:

big ed wrote:

dantheman wrote:Italian pottery would be far more collectable had they marked it for identification

Quality pieces were well marked , but the run of the mill tourist stuff we see most of was just churn them out quick and sell them cheap , bish bosh , but I agree a little hint of makers wouldv'e ben nice .

so can we assume that all unmarked Italian pottery is of poor quality?

I realy don't agree with that, I think we can find very good quality Italian pieces without a signature. And sometimes the signed pieces are not so good either.

that's what I thought Rita

Hope thats right !

dantheman wrote:

big ed wrote:

dantheman wrote:Italian pottery would be far more collectable had they marked it for identification

Quality pieces were well marked , but the run of the mill tourist stuff we see most of was just churn them out quick and sell them cheap , bish bosh , but I agree a little hint of makers wouldv'e ben nice .

so can we assume that all unmarked Italian pottery is of poor quality?

I never said unmarked pieces were of poor quality , so you can't assume anything , but tourist ware is tourist ware , if you like it fine , but you gets what you pay for in many cases , you collect because you like , too much emphasis is on who made it , that's all we hear these days , of course there are marked pieces of low standard ( subjective) but stands to reason if a factory is churning out 100,000 pieces they aint quality , likeable maybe , quality imo

Thanks for your comments -- and I think the discussion is really interesting!

I have seen quite a few San Marino pieces with mark, the usual pretty ladies for instance, which I would think are much less interesting than my fish plate (which is really a fine piece IMHO, whoever may have made it). Both are tourist ware, no doubt.

If you compare it to Murano glass, important is not if something is tourist ware (almost all glass sold in Venice is), but the quality of the item and the prize a tourist can afford to pay.
A Dino Martens piece from the 1950s and a generic sommerso vase from the same period were both tourist ware, neither is usually marked...

I am rather glad that so many Italian potters produced this kind of stuff in the thousands, and in very different quality -- this way I can find a nice piece now and then :-)

Michael

i agree....some pictures to follow

I agree with Michael (rocco).
I think quality and taste are two different things. You should be able to recognize the quality of some items without liking them, also you can be fond of some pieces although you know that they are not good quality.
The matter with the italian production, glass or pottery, is they didn't valued signature enough, so many of the really nice quality items are not signed. Either because they were tourist ware, or exportation, or whatever...

...so many of the really nice quality items are not signed. Either because they were tourist ware, or exportation, or whatever...

If it's touristware then it doesn't need to be signed. If it's exportware then it would need to be because of trade tariffs in imported goods.

NaomiM wrote:

...so many of the really nice quality items are not signed. Either because they were tourist ware, or exportation, or whatever...

If it's touristware then it doesn't need to be signed. If it's exportware then it would need to be because of trade tariffs in imported goods.

Most of Italian exportation items are marked "Made in Italy", "Italy", "dipinto a mano - Italy". There are not signatures, only an identification of the country.

R.Ferrao wrote:I agree with Michael (rocco).
I think quality and taste are two different things. You should be able to recognize the quality of some items without liking them, also you can be fond of some pieces although you know that they are not good quality.
The matter with the italian production, glass or pottery, is they didn't valued signature enough, so many of the really nice quality items are not signed. Either because they were tourist ware, or exportation, or whatever...

Yes quality and Taste are two different things , also of course you can like pieces that are of poor quality ( sometimes that's the attraction ) other factors can be attributed to desirability, age perhaps , period styles etc. , but the fact remains that most unsigned pieces like common italian stuff were simply souvenirs and no more , they can be collected and loved as can anything , but quality is quality not quantity .

R.Ferrao wrote:

NaomiM wrote:

...so many of the really nice quality items are not signed. Either because they were tourist ware, or exportation, or whatever...

If it's touristware then it doesn't need to be signed. If it's exportware then it would need to be because of trade tariffs in imported goods.

Most of Italian exportation items are marked "Made in Italy", "Italy", "dipinto a mano - Italy". There are not signatures, only an identification of the country.

My apologies for the confusion, I just meant 'marked' rather than the 'artist's signature'.