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CHAPTER XL
ITALIAN POTTERY
About nine years ago, an American connoisseur, automobiling from Paris
to Vienna, the route which lies through Northern Italy, quite by
chance, happened to see some statuettes in the window of a hopeful,
but unknown, potter's little shop, on a wonderful, ancient, covered
bridge. You, too, may have seen that rarely beautiful bridge spanning
the River Brenta, and have looked out through broad arches which occur
at intervals, on views, so extraordinary that one feels they must be
on a Gothic tapestry, or the journey just a dream! One cannot forget
the wild, rushing river of purplish-blues, and the pines, in deep
greens, which climb up, past ruined castles, perched on jutting rocks,
toward snow-capped mountain peaks. The views were beautiful, but so
were the statuettes which had caught our collector's eye. He bought
some, made inquiries as to facilities for reproduction at these
potteries, and exchanged addresses. The result was that to-day, that
humble potter directs several large factories, which are busy reviving
classic designs, which may be found on sale everywhere in Italy and in
many other countries as well as America.
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