"The Butterfly service". A Cozzi porcelain dinner service, circa 1770

each painted with one or several different butterflies within flower garlands, comprising: 2 salad bowls, 2 mustard pots, 3 sauce tureens, covers, stands and ladles, 2 wine coolers, 20 serving dishes,  50 plates, 32 soup plates

This service comprises: 2 salad bowls, 2 mustard pots, 3 sauce tureens, covers, stands and ladles, 2 wine coolers, 20 serving dishes (8 heart shaped; 4 oval in sizes; 4 oval shallow; 2 circular shallow ; 2 circular), 50 plates, 32 soup plates. The majority of plates and dishes are in good condition apart from typical very minute chips to footrim and very minute wear to enamel and gilt rims which in our opinion do not need attention. Around 15 plates only have slight patches of rubbed glaze at well commensurate with use and some are now slightly grey, probably because of the dust when they were presented on walls. Out of 111 pieces only one soup plate and one dinner plates are severely broken and restuck ( they need attention), one dinner plate, one soup plate and 2 oval shallow dishes are restored. Covers of mustard pots and cover of one sauce tureen are broken and restuck, the cover of the other sauce tureen has a restored chip, continuing in a hairline crack to the final. The finial of this cover has been restored. Tip of one sauce ladle restuck (almost unoticeable). A couple of plates have also minor hairline cracks, as well as one salad bowl and one plate has a minor chip. This is a very beautiful and rare service. For further detail and information, please do contact the Ceramics department +44 (0)207 293 5350.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

An imaginative entrepreneur and banker, Germiniano Cozzi created the most successful Venetian porcelain factory of the late 18th century. He became involved in the porcelain business, first as a partner with Nathaniel Friderich Hewelcke, who had founded his porcelain factory in 1761. In 1763, however, the factory went bankrupt and Hewelcke went back to Germany. Germiniano Cozzi then started up his own factory on the Caneraggio, and was soon afterwards offered support from the Senate and Venetian authorities.
The factory grew rapidly, employing 50 people, including 7 painters, 7 potters and 2 sculptors, with a shop in Campo san salvador. Its great strength was firstly to source some proper kaolin in Italy (in the cave del Tretto, near Vicenza) instead of importing it illegally from Saxony. Secondly, the factory adapted its production to its clientele, creating less costly creamware for the wider public and high quality porcelain for the nobility.  Overall, figures and tableware thus pleased a very large international clientele, either imitating creations from other factories, especially Meissen, or being a new design from the factory itself.  Beautiful large services were designed and painted either with mythological subjects, or scenes after classical poems such as Jerusalem Delivered, written in 1580 by Torquato Tasso, or with animals. The factory shut in 1812, after Cozzi’s death.
The service here offered is a perfect example of one of these rare Cozzi inventions. One plate of the type is recorded in the Correr Museum, Venice (see. N. Barbantini, Le porcellane de Venezia e della Nove, 1936, pl. 227).