Arte Bordallo Box Large Frog (Special Order)

Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro produces a remarkable production of blue tiles for the interior and exterior coating treated as decorative elements of great importance. Of the tiles with relief, either with patterns or figures, it is important to highlight the originality and quality of the glazes applied manually. The blue tile of the big frog (1884 – 1905) is a representation of naturalism and Art Nouveau by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro, being most recently used as a box lid. Earthenware. Hand crafted and painted in Portugal. Portugal's most beloved cartoonist of the 19th century, Bordallo Pinheiro was famous for creating the character "Ze Povinho," a rustic laborer who was kind to his friends and contemptuous of those with money and power. His artistic style blends the honesty realism of late 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement with the dramatic, even grotesque, features of Goya's earlier paintings. In 1884, he and his son founded an eponymous factory in Caldas da Rainha along the Portuguese coast to create whimsical and naturalistic faience pieces based on his art. Because of the special minerals in the local soil and the skills of the craftsmen in the area, Caldas da Rainha is well-known as the capital of Portuguese pottery. Today the factory takes Pinheiro's original style into the 21st century with satirical portraits of modern day celebrities, while continuing its old fashioned, made by hand tradition of Portuguese pottery making.