LARGE ORANGE AND WHITE FRATELLI FANCIULLACCI ASHTRAY

A large, 10", triangular orange and white ashtray with a touch of green and an antlered animal motif. Probably produced by the Italian ceramics company FRATELLI FANCIULLACCI in the '60s or '70s. FRATELLI FANCIULLACCI (THE BROS. FANCIULLACCI) had its origin in the environs of Florence, with a family whose ties to the Italian ceramics industry extend back to the 1700s. The Fancullaccis had collaborated with the world-famous Richard-Ginori porcelain company, ever since the 1737 founding of that company's factory in Sesto Fiorentino (a municipality of Florence). Indeed they were so invested in the plant that, when its founder Carlo Ginori died in 1757, they tried to wrest away control from his son Lorenzo, then a minor. The attempted coup was thwarted by Carlo's widow, Mariana Garzoni Venturi, who acted as interim manager until Lorenzo came of age. Arguably the most artistically important Fanciullacci to be employed at Ginori during the 18th and early 19th centuries was Giovanni Battista