Savona Faience

Savona faience, tin-glazed earthenware made in the 17th and 18th centuries at Savona, Liguria, Italy, and at nearby Genoa and Albissola. It is painted in a highly individual and seemingly artless style.

Most 17th-century specimens are decorated in blue on a white ground; the painting of landscapes, ships, animals, birds, and sometimes human figures is sketchy but assured, often with deliberately visible brushstrokes. Similar compositions are carried out in brownish purple on a turquoise ground and sometimes in other colours. Typical dishes have openwork, scalloped, or otherwise ornamented edges. In the 18th century a similar style prevailed, sketchy scenes being painted in restrained colours that were sometimes deliberately allowed to smudge and run. Many potters are known by name, such as the Guidobono family, spanning the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries; the Folco, Levantino, and Boselli families in the 18th century; and Girolamo Salomone (flourished 1700–20).