History of Montelupo Ceramics

During the 1530’s, the ceramics production of Montelupo undergoes its first beating and impediment in its development. This is because of problems linked to the difficult political situation, which removes Florence from the Republic and makes it the Medici Principality.

At the beginning of the next decade, the effects of the historical inflation (the so-called “Revolution of Prices”) on the local ceramics firms (as in the rest of Italy) establish a substantial change in the way the work is done and in the technology (the birth of the “compendiario” style, the increase in the production of “engobe”,etc.).

At the end of the sixteenth century such difficulties are accentuated by the warning signs of the real economic crisis which then follows, making itself manifest during the years of the “European Crisis” in 1618 – 1621.

After 1630, the year of the great plague pandemic, which spreads into Northern Italy and Mid-northern Italy, the number of ceramicists drops dramatically, so much so that many families, for centuries linked to the ceramics trade, lose all trace of their connection.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, Montelupo comes up against a considerable drop in productivity which, slowly but inexorably, will lead to the disappearance of the furnaces which were dedicated to the majolica industry, leaving in existence only “minor” activities.

But in that period, because of changing historical conditions, dependent for the main part on economical losses, these activities consisted of making cooking pots and terracotta goods (pitchers, vessels, etc.).