Medici Porcelain began appearing in the Florence region of Italy in the 16th Century. Medici Porcelain represented the first more or less successful European attempt in history to mimic the porcelain of China. It was, however, a soft-paste variety, as opposed to hard-paste porcelain from China, which is more durable.
Under the direction of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco di Medici, the first items were created in the Casino di Marco in the 1570's. Never for sale to the public, the Duke had these early European porcelain pieces made for gifts of state.
It may have been Bernardo Buontalenti that was at last able to fire the different trial and error combinations of raw materials at a high enough temperature to obtain a workable product. Production costs, however, were quite high, since use of such high temperature techniques were new to that part of the world.
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As was the case so often with early porcelain, the finished products usually exhibited a blue underglaze. The letter "F" or the Brunelleschi dome marked some pieces.
When Francesco died in 1587, only some 300 Medici Porcelain objects were tallied. His younger brother, Cardinal Ferdinando di Medici, took over the Medici Porcelain venture. However, he eventually lost interest after importing many technologically superior pieces from Asia. His Medici Porcelain did not measure up in his mind, due to excessive cracks and bubbles in the glazes. The Medici Porcelain had been glazed at around 1100 degrees centigrade as opposed to the more than 1400 degrees used for hard-paste porcelain of China.
The ingredients for making Medici Porcelain were clay of Vicenza, glass, powdered rock, sand,
and the white earth of Faenza.
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