Neapolitan family of ceramists operating between the 17th and 19th centuries, whose activity was part of the perpetuation of the arts and crafts tradition within the same clan.

During the 1700s and until 1826, the factory was based in Naples at Borgo Loreto (on the boundary with Ponte della Maddalena) where, since the early 17th century, a number of "faenzere" (factories) had been opened for the production of majolica objects and "riggiole" (majolica tiles for floors and walls; it would later move to the nearby Via della Marinella). The earliest evidence of the D.'s is the presence of the "riggiolaro" Stefano (born 1692: Naples, Arch. stor. diocesano, Processetto matrimoniale n.2409), whose last work is the floor with "very fine and labored" bricks for the Jesuit church in Catania, dated 1765 (Ibid., Arch. stor. d. Banco di Napoli, Banco Pietà, Matr. 2253, 2255, 1765). He was succeeded by his son Domenico (d. 1732: Ibid., Arch. histor. diocesan, Letter D.) of whom there is much news until 1785. At the same time other D. are found to be present at the R. Fabbrica di maioliche di Caserta, wanted by Charles VII of Bourbon in 1753: Angelo (from its foundation to its closure in 1756), Gennaro from 1754 and Nicola from 1755, all working in the painting sector (Donatone, 1973).

Angelo's decorated objects (initialed or dated from 1754 to 1764: Donatone, 1981, fig. 64) demonstrate a refined Rococo pictorial taste derived from the color scheme of early 18th-century floors. From 1774 to 1789 Gennaro is listed as a "riggiolaro" (Arch. di Stato di Napoli, Mon. soppr. 4144, ff. n.n.): in 1789 he appears with Nicola, perhaps his son, as the proprietor of a "faenzera" producing "plates, saucers, soup tureens, salad bowls, basins, coolers and every other object in green tint" (ibid. 4146, ff. n.n.). To this type belongs the majolica serving dish for 32 place settings (Naples, coll. Garzilli), decorated with elegant small flowers in copperplate between a thin manganese design on a broad white ground: white ground and copperplate would be distinctive elements of future production in the late 18th century (Borrelli, 1961, display case 7).

According to Novi (1865), in 1785 Gennaro and Nicola allegedly received a grant of 18,000 ducats from King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon to start an experimental production of earthenware according to the English type, in order to avoid the considerable import of such objects; but the news turns out to be inaccurate (Borrelli, 1985, p. 36). There is, however, an unpublished earthenware service with views of Naples, initialed "F.D.V." - Fabbrica Del Vecchio - (Naples, private coll.) that highlights the simplified take from the famous "dell'Oca" service produced in the R. Fabbrica from 1792 to 1797 and would demonstrate the earliest activity of the factory.

A payment note of 1815 (Arch. stor. del Banco di Napoli, Banco Pietà. Cassa, ff. n.n.) attests to the sale of porcelain objects, "vases and candlesticks," by Nicola; this was long before the antagonistic Giustiniani factory, with which his nephew Cherinto turns out to be associated in 1836 (Carola Perotti, 1972, p. 852) after a lively dispute. In 1818 the factory appears to be run by Gaetano, who until 1822 received prizes in exhibitions of Neapolitan industries for his excellent earthenware products "sold even abroad." In the next edition of 1826 Cherinto was present for the first time with his declared sampler of earthenware objects made in the new premises at "strada della Marinella 4," in which he produced the original tiles with flowers (signed, c. 1820); or the 1829 floor for the church of S. Maria de Commendatis in Maddaloni (Caserta), with the mark "Del Vecchio" in a laurel wreath surmounted by a royal crown, in memory of the ancient royal grant.

In 1830 Cherinto received a gold medal for his porcelain made from "indigenous materials," also distinguishing himself in the 1832 and 1834 exhibitions; in 1836 he received the award jointly with the Giustinani, with whom he was in partnership (Liberatore, 1834). In 1840 Cherinto was again awarded for objects of "earthenware to English use," but when the direction was taken over by his son Gennaro, the latter, in his inability to withstand the competition of the new factories, first expired in mass production and then, in 1855, closed the factory (Mosca, 1908, p. 126), which was then taken over, in 1870, by the last of the Giustiniani family, Michele.

It is not possible to integrate the history of the Del Vecchio factory with the vast production never dated, though often initialed. A few distinguishing features help only to isolate the products from those of the coeval and better-known Giustiniani factory and from repetition. The D.'s, like the other factories, produced, at the same time, two or three samples differentiated by taste, finish, subject, and color, the patterns of which, often, were reused at a later date. To a refined production they coupled a popular one in order to meet the demands of different segments of the clientele, consisting of the rich, middle and petit bourgeoisie: the nobility bought porcelain.

One of the distinguishing features is the prevalence of a plastic sense, fused with a chromatic synthesis reduced to a few ornaments on a broad white background, even when the composition consists of flowers, animals and landscapes; white earthenware and marbled earthenware production is abundant. The "all'estrusca and all'egizia" decoration is more geometrized and simplified than the coeval Giustiniani samples. The group of modeled figures, particularly pairs in 18th-century costumes, or the better-known "Punchinello" and animals, reflect the servants' search for plastic and chromatic synthesis. For the most current production, the color scheme is given by backgrounds according to 18th-century experiences, and this was until 1826 when Cherinto proposed a more refined type in the neoclassical style, attempting to transfer the delicacies of porcelain decoration to the earthenware. Of the porcelains it has not been possible to find initialed pieces, certainly confused with those of the Giustiniani associates, or even with the unmarked ones of the R. Fabbrica; in fact Carafa, Duke of Noia (1877, pp. 311, 315, 342, 358), specifies that the D.'s repeated the models of the R. Fabbrica, and in this regard indicates an antique biscuit group, depicting a Couple in Costume of the 18th century, mounted on an earthenware base by the D.'s, as well as a vase, a candlestick and a staff pommel derived from models of the R. Fabbrica. It is to the earliest period, around 1815, when they were producing a very white earthenware covered with thick porcelain varnish, that two groups modeled by sculptors who also worked in Neapolitan nativity plastic are to be assigned: St. Michael the Archangel (Naples, Museo S. Martino: Causa-Bonucci, 1964, fig. 19) and Tobiolo and the angel (ibid., private coll.: Borrelli, 1985, p. 37). To the "half-porcelain" sector are to be assigned the Genie of Naples group indicating the abundance of the earth (Carafa Noia, 1877, p. 308) and Bacchus and Cupid (ibid., p. 342).

Not easily solved is the problem of objects produced in the context of plastic representations of 19th-century setting but reflecting 18th-century canons, such as the series of inkwells whose functionality was disguised in a rococo base move with reticella (a typical D. motif), derived from 18th-century floor and vase decorations, surmounted by a kneeling Ragazzino (Naples, coll. Pisani) or a hunchbacked Pulcinella (ibid., private coll.). This series, erroneously attributed to the Giustiniani (Putaturo Murano, 1981, table XV), was made in white and colored earthenware versions (Borrelli, 1961). 1 groups of costumed figures from the 18th century, or those from the early 19th century, such as those in the Correale Museum in Sorrento (erroneously attributed to the Giustiniani factory: Morazzone, 1938, p. 8) are repeats made around 1840 of models from the D.'s earliest production (c. 1815). Not differently the Coppia di borghesi a passeggio (Naples, coll. Novelli) certain of the D.'s both for the typical marbled base and for the functionality of the pen-holder tree trunk, an element that shows the idea "of the gift-object." Repeating nineteenth-century models, around 1840, is, the series of Punchinellos with monkeys (Carafa Noia, 1877, p. 353; Museo Correale, Sorrento; Naples, coll. Di Donato), some with the typical thick glaze patina of the D.'s that determined, within a few years, the stripping known as "of the jumping off."

The Neapolitan "nativity scene," between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, constituted an artistic event of - considerable prominence in which the scene of the "tavern" was enriched by numerous specimens, in minute proportions, of the same majolica objects that gladdened the tables of the time: an extraordinary series of these tureens, trays, "alla reale" plates, flasks, oil lamps, "giarre," "scafaree," and other objects by the D.'s, was present at the 1961 exhibition (Borrelli, display case 5). In the same exhibition were the white earthenware serving pieces (Naples, coll. Di Donato), a particozlarity of the D.'s production. : planters, glass refreshers, cups, holsters, jugs, fruit baskets, candlesticks, butter dishes, soup tureens, aquamaniles, ice cream stoves, soup cups, gravy boats, trays, déjeuner and tête-à-tête servers, milk jugs, teapots, beard basins and jugs, pipe stoves, snuffboxes, oil cruets, and perfume holders. To this genre belong the "tripod" tureens, with lion or Medusa protomes, in polychrome or white variants of small roses (Naples, private coll.) initialed "F.D.V.N." (Fabbrica Del Vecchio, Naples).

The marks are not always decipherable and datable: the "F.D.V." should be referred to the earliest production, presumably up to 1818, in Gaetano's management and before the extensive exports abroad; while the addition of "N" (Naples) can be justified precisely by the spread outside Itafia. The mark "Del Vecchio" and the mark "Del Vecchio, N.," in italics, may refer to the better-known period of Cherinthus' management, both because of the similarity with the marks recovered on the back of datable tiles and because of that refined taste, which was peculiar to Cherinthus, of transferring porcelain techniques to earthenware. To this genre belong the exceptional unpublished objects, with refined decoration (Naples, coll. G. Donatone), hitherto erroneously attributed to the Giustiniani factory because of the elegant and miniature coloring in the scenes of popular subjects (the return from the feast of the Madonna dell'Arco and a fish sale), depicted on a large "crater," and of the Galatea on a small tray, both marked "F.D.V.N." (Borrelli, 1985, p. 34). "Dei Vecchio N." objects in "Etruscan" style and in white earthenware from the Museo S. Martino, Naples, turn out to be marked "Dei Vecchio N."; while those indicated by Mosca (1908) as marked "Del Vecchio" preceded and followed by a rhombus have not been recovered.