Hotsell Antique big confit - pot in glazed terracotta dating back to the beginning of 1900, made in Grottaglie (Apulia, Italy)

Rare pot in glazed terracotta, called “vasettu smarmriatu” in the local dialect, meaning the way it is painted resembles variegated marble. It was used to store and keep preserves, quince jelly or marmalade, biscuits, almonds, etc. The glaze drippings on its rim make it truly unique and charming.

Imperfections and wear are distinguishing signs of authenticity.

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It was produced in Grottaglie, in the Southern Italian province of Taranto, Apulia. The town is part of a selected group of 40 Italian cities producing DOC ceramic artefacts; in fact, it is the only Italian town with a whole neighbourhood entirely dedicated to the production of these handicrafts. For centuries in the heart of the town, along the San Giorgio Ravine (“Gravina San Giorgio”), skilled ceramists have been opening their workshops and studios, in which kilns for firing ceramics were built directly into the rocks of ancient hypogean spaces, formerly used also as oil mills. “Li Camenn're” – literally, “the chimneys”, e.i. the kilns for firing ceramics - is how the locals call the medieval neighbourhood built in the XIV century, in which, nowadays, the clay is modelled.
A 1463 document from the Royal Customhouse of Taranto attests the production and trade of majolica. In this period Grottaglie had become the largest supplier of ceramic artefacts for domestic use in the service of the harbour traffic and trade. Starting from 1567, archive documents list ceramists' names under the status of “cretari”, namely producers of objects of domestic and common use. In the XVII century some “faenzari” will appear, craftsmen who dedicated themselves to making more refined, selected types of ceramic.