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# 77 MARCH 21 , 2016
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ITALIAN HANDCRAFTS:
Nove Ceramics
By Camera di Commercio di Vicenza with Unioncamere
cing high-quality majolica The gypsum was taken
for twenty years without from the Asiago plateau,
the clay from the hills of
paying any taxes.
Marostica, and the kaolin
The Brenta river, which from Tretti, providing the
flows to the east of the necessary materials for ceresidential area of Nove, ramics and especially porplayed a decisive role in celain. These materials,
the birth of ceramics tree along with others, were
trunks were brought in processed at the old milalong the river on large ls that were established in
rafts, which were then col- the area for that very purlected, cut and distributed pose.
to the various factories to
fuel their kilns. A kiln had
to work for several days at
temperatures of around
9001000 degrees for
At the beginning of the majolica and 1200 degreeighteenth century, the es for porcelain.
Venetian Republic and the
city of Venice incentivised Stones were also gathered
the production of cerami- from the river and then
cs to limit imports and en- calcinated or pounded to
courage exports. In 1732, retrieve the calcium carthe “Savi della Mercan- bonate, silica and quartz:
zia” council granted Gio- the fundamental materials
vanni Battista Antonibon for ceramic bodies.
the privilege of produCeramics have been made
in Nove for three hundred
years, and in fact this artistic endeavour owes its
success to a favourable
conjunction of political,
economical and environmental factors. The oldest
and most illustrious manufacturers sprang up along
the Isacchina canal, a waterway that runs through the historic centre of
Nove, and on the banks of
which two important mills
were established for preparing ceramic bodies.
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