Fortnightly Column by Anita Nair

Este and the Rest

I wish I could date my passion for china. Sometimes I think it was ignited by a writing table in my grandmothers house. The table itself had nothing to redeem it from the ordinary but it was huge and had three drawers with white ceramic knobs. Ever so often, as a little child, I would caress the knob as if it were a kitten. Perfectly contoured to fit within my palm, the knob, cool and sleek stoked a passion that would rule the rest of my life. My heart gleamed....and a voice whispered in my head: But how can you let this go?

It wasnt as if there was a method to this madness. I didnt acquire full services nor was I a true collector in that sense. Going by crests and insignias, periods and dates...mostly what I was attracted to were bits and pieces and then the china found me rather than vice versa.

When I first moved to Bangalore sixteen years ago, in a neglected corner of an antique shop I chanced upon remnants from an Edward VIII Coronation breakfast set. I knew then what a magpie must feel.

Edward VIII Coronation china is of no significant value in the antique index but was of special significance to me for here was a man who chose to abdicate his throne for a woman...It was sentiment at its murkiest nevertheless, it managed to strike a poignant note somewhere in me...That month, we lived frugally for I spent most of my salary on a king who was never king....

At a publishers home in Copenhagen, he brought out roast potatoes in a serving dish that stood on feet. My heart gleamed again. But as much as he loved my books, I didnt think he was going to part with his grandmothers china and so I raised the dish, allowed myself for a brief moment to feel that twinge of familiarity and then peered at the crest. Royal Copenhagen china. I found a shop near my hotel where they dealt in odds and ends. A sugar bowl from a tea service, a gravy boat from a dinner service...it was exactly what I was looking for.

In an antique shop in Sussex, I found a Wedgwood plate. A wooded shack along the Seine in Paris yielded an egg cup. In Amsterdam a box. In Krakow, a tooth pick holder.....over the years my collection has grown, but I was to never know the fullness of desire until in Padua in Italy, I walked into a friends home and was enchanted by Este ceramic ware.

I had always kept an eye open for Italian ceramics. But nothing had prepared me for the understated charm of Este. Intricately patterned with delicate and light rococo swirls, the beauty of Este lay in that it was white on white. My heart gleamed again and again.

In the 8th century BC, Este the place was inhabited by the Celtic people Paleoveneti (which means ancient Veneti, from where Veneto, the name of the region and Venezia as well has been drawn from).? Este was at that?time a very important economical and religious centre and home to the?temple of the Great Goddess Reitia.?Attached to the temple was a writing school and the Goddess, represented with a key in one hand and a pomegranate in the other, was regarded as a protector of the house and of afterlife. During the Middle Ages the very important noble family of the Estensi (the family from Este) reigned there. Actually the large castle in which the present day Museum is housed is still in good conditions. In the Renaissance, the?Estensi went to Ferrara, and their principality was one of the most important and powerful in Italy, even from an artistic and cultural point of view.?Isabella d'Este, a very intelligent?and cultivated woman, friend to Leonardo da Vinci and many other artists and poets, married a Gonzaga, prince of Mantova.?

The tradition of pottery in Este is ancient. The style itself as seen in some of the typical Este ware seems drawn from the richly embellished bronze urns the nobility of Paleoveneti used to preserve the ashes of their interred family. However what could have led to the pottery making itself lay in the fact that Este is very rich in a very special kind of clay called Kaolin which is perfect for fine bone china.

While the typical Este pottery is?either all?white, or blue and white or white with a special flower and ribbon pattern in dark green, yellow, light brown?and dark red, since the 18th Century, a special white pottery that incorporated several Neo Classical art elements came into?fashion and it was this I was smitten by.?

One of the most ancient and historical china and pottery?manufactures in Este was called CAPUANI. Their mark was "Capuani . Vecchia Este" (Old Este) and bore a five pointed crown. Set up at the end of the 17th century, the ownership had been controlled by the same family to the 1960s. Generation after generation, casting china from the original moulds that married all the influences of civilizations and races that have dwelled in Este.

Since then disease and death had worked its way into the family stilling the production of this exquisite ceramic ware. How could it be, I thought, that something so fine could have ceased to be?

On a whim, my friend Francesca and I decided to go exploring. Dont be too disappointed, she said. I havent been there in a long time and I dont know if the Capuani production still continues. But you never know...

Perhaps on every piece of Este white pottery, an invisible hand writes the name of the person whom it shall go to. For we did find the mark of Capuani. The new owner Dall'Angelo had bought the moulds from the wife of the last descendant of the family and continued with the ancient production in an industrial shed.

Spilling out of shelves and nudging each other was a veritable cornucopia of Este ceramic ware: Plates, full sets of them; and cups and saucers, wine flagons and bon bon dishes, gravy boats and sugar bowls, tureens and serving dishes, jugs and platters; little statues, chandeliers, candle holders, tiny corner stands... all white on white and each exquisite.

I wrapped my hand around a white candle stand cast with white flowers and fruit, grape leaves on a frond and felt again what has come to mean the pull of china for me. Smooth, cold, and perfectly contoured. How could I let this go?