Bruno Merli (1914-1996) Italian, Capodimonte Porcelain Sculpture. Large piece with very delicate features, showing three children enraptured by an old woman's story as she darns socks with chickens and a basket of apples nearby. Cheeky details on the back including a handled bucket and a covered well demonstrate the skill and attention to detail of the artist, who signed the piece at the bottom edge of the base. The title is written in Italian script on the front, translating to "Once Upon a Time..." Marked on the underside "Works of Art Italy 48." 

Size: 17 x 11 x 10 1/4 in. 

Capodimonte porcelain (also known as Capo di Monte) is porcelain created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory (Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte), which operated in Naples, Italy beginning in 1743 when the newly arrived Bourbon King Charles VII of Naples and his wife Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony founded the factory in the grounds of the Palace of Capodimonte. The queen’s grandfather, Augustus II the Strong, had founded the Meissen porcelain factory which led European porcelain, and they recruited the Flemish chemist Livio Ottavio Schepers and the painter Giovanni Caselli to start producing soft-paste, with the Florentine sculptor Giuseppe Gricci joining as chief modeller. In 1759 the entire factory was moved to Madrid, becoming the Real Fábrica del Buen Retiro after Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his brother, but despite its short-lived period in Naples the reputation was so great that the name is often claimed and used for porcelain made in other factories in or around Naples to this day. A new royal factory was established by Charles’ son Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, which manufactured from 1771 until 1806 and was known for Neoclassical subjects and styles with their figures in unglazed biscuit porcelain, officially called the Naples Royal Porcelain Manufactory. Their work was discontinued when Napoleon invaded the Kingdom of Naples, but these names and imitations of the original figures and forms have also been in continuous use since the early 19th Century, with local factories piggybacking off their success for a wide variety of wares in a great range of quality.

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