A Naples Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea porcelain sugar box, cover and stand, circa 1795-1800

Sotheby's, New York, 18 November 2011, lot 7.

Naples was to become an important destination for those on a Grand Tour, drawn by the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum and a fascination with the natural wonder of Mount Vesuvius, which was almost continuously active in the 18th century. Sir William Hamilton was the Envoy Extraordinary to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800 and a passionate collector of art and antiquities. While in Naples he developed a scientific interest in volcanoes and earthquakes, making detailed studies of Mount Vesuvius, while at the same time, in his position as ambassador, acting as a knowledgeable guide and genteel host to visitors on the Grand Tour. This sugar box, cover and stand is among wares produced at the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea factory that record some of the numerous eruptions of Vesuvius and may have been intended to appeal as a souvenir for those who undertook a Grand Tour. For a sugar box and cover of this form, with a gilt lion final see A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli, Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 1986, tav. LXIX, and tav. LXXXI for a coffee pot painted with a scene of Mount Vesuvius erupting, observed by a crowd.