The Del
Pellegrino’s Home Page
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We’re proud
to announce that our book
Italian Pottery Marks From Cantagalli To Fornasetti Is
available at Lulu.com On the road with Antiques
Roadshow! Italian Pottery Marks has been added to the reference library of our favorite television show!
June 13, 2005 The following handwritten note was
received from Mr.
Wendell Garrett, Senior Vice President of Sotheby’s, Editor-At-Large
of The Magazine Antiques: Kindest thanks for your
thoughtfulness and generosity for the gift of 'Italian Pottery Marks'. I am most impressed. The book is
comprehensive in scope, scholarly in research, beautiful in its
illustrations, and clear in its writing. Everyone interested in ceramics -
collectors, curators, scholars and students should have a copy on his or
her shelf. Warmest regards, Wendell
Published,
Jan 2006
ITALIAN
POTTERY MARKS: FAENZA The City Of Ceramics
This volume is the first in a
series dedicated to the regional ceramic centers of Italy. Originally, the
inaugural volume was intended to encompass the entire region of
Emilia-Romagna but Faenza proved to be so rich in history and culture, and
endowed with such an abundance of artistic genius (on a scale that is truly
staggering) that we altered our course and devoted this book exclusively to the city. (Color
Edition) Available at
Lulu.com
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Published, Jan 2006
ITALIAN POTTERY MARKS: FAENZA The City Of Ceramics (Black & White Edition)
This is also identical to the
full color book and costs about one third less.
Available
at Lulu.com 
ISBN: 1-4116-6837-5
Within 2 days of publication our book is the Number 1 search
result on 
Click the Google logo, type in ‘italian pottery marks’
and see for yourself!
For an even greater challenge simply type in ‘pottery marks’ which includes all countries in the world and you’ll see that it ranks 27th of 878,000 entries! Not bad for a book in the first 10 days of it’s release.
Note: the figures change constantly as additions are made to
the world wide web continuously,
when we googled ‘pottery marks’ in December, our book was in
the top ten results of over 5,600,000 entries!
And is now being offered for sale by
LIBRO CO.
ITALIA - THE A TO Z OF ART IN ITALY, in Florence, Italy
We
are flattered beyond description to see our book offered by this prestigious
bookseller.
Reprinted
from the website: Libro Co. Italia was established in 1992 and since that
time we have developed a reputation among our customers and are quoted to be
the best distributor of art books in Italy by Assindustria - Italia, with
clients including the leading institutions and museums in Europe and America.
It’s also
listed on the Clayzee website! 
The very first review of our book posted on
Lulu is so complimentary we’re both blushing! It’s thrilling to know the work
that went into creating the book is appreciated.
REVIEW: Fri 29 Apr 8:13 pm EDT 2005
MUST Handbook for Lovers of
Italian Ceramics
Italian Pottery Marks From
Cantagalli To Fornasetti, I predict,
will be an instant best-seller among those who buy, sell, and collect fine
ceramics. Until now, identifying Italian pieces from this very important
period (1850-1950) was a crap shoot; very few books contain information on
these ceramics, and most of those are in Italian, rare, and pricey.
The Del Pellegrinos' handbook plugs that deep black hole nicely. The
scholarship and bookcraft are excellent -- it looks as good as it reads! In
fact, I read it all at one sitting, and enjoyed the pictures as much as the
well written and engaging text. Examples of makers marks -- which,
thankfully, include many photos -- are accompanied by much useful data on the
potters/companies, and illustrations of various types of Italian ceramics
from this era are sprinkled throughout the book. The Del Pellegrinos also
include a good overview of the artistic history of the subject period, as
well as a compact section on research sources.
In sum, this reference is a valuable contribution to the appreciation of
Italian pottery and porcelain of that period, and will interest collectors of
later work as well. A vade mecum for sure!
Vade mecum (we looked it up!) is from Latin, literally meaning "go with me."
1. A book for ready reference;
a manual; a handbook.
2. A useful thing that one regularly carries about.
One month after it’s release at the end of April 2005,
the book moves up the ranks of the Lulu website from
over # 3600 to # 135,
and makes the Best Sellers list for the Months of May
and June.
As of September, it’s consistently ranked in the top
100.
An antiques dealer ordered 40 copies for sale in his
shop in Rome, Italy!
Another great review
was posted on Lulu, May 19, 2005,
“…Wonderful
color illustrations provide the reader with examples of subjects covered by
the authors. Perhaps the best surprise
of all is found towards the end of the book in the index of pottery marks and
the manufacturers' history. To date, there is no other book offered in
English for the pottery collector or dealer to reference for Italian pieces.
This remarkable book has been long overdue in the pottery world and is most
welcomed among the community of dealers and collectors alike. To the authors'
credit, the book reads quickly and is easily absorbed. This is a MUST HAVE
book for any pottery/ceramic reference library! This is a two thumbs up and
five star review with kudos to the authors!”
We’re so happy the
collectors are pleased! We intended for our guide to be used out in the
field, at yard sales, estate sales, flea markets. It’s not meant to be a stay
at home ‘coffee table’ book, but a little work horse of a guide to help find
those treasures hidden among all the knick knacks. By the end of the warm
weather ‘treasure hunting’ season,
you should have a guide that’s dog-eared and slightly ragged and a selection
of beautiful, identified Italian pottery! Then we’ll know we’ve done our
job and our book has served its purpose. Happy hunting!
Current plans:
Since our first book served as a
general introduction to Italian ceramics throughout the entire country,
rather than any specific locale within Italy, it was restricted in offering any
detailed discussions of regional histories, styles and techniques. We,
therefore, have made the decision to
offer a series of books based upon the major ceramics producing centers of
Italy thus offering the collector an opportunity to delve more deeply into
the subject. The second book in this series, Italian Pottery Marks: Campania (working title), will be available
later in 2006.
We now have a Forum for
Italian pottery lovers,
Stop in as a guest any
time, there’s no need to register as a forum member
to view the photos or
read though the posts.
Be sure to view the Mystery
Marks section – you may be able to help another pottery lover
identify their mystery
piece!
We’re working on another
pottery book that’s been on the back burner since 1999; we think it’s finally
ready to be a book. It will be a complete departure from the Italian marks
series.
All of this doesn’t leave much
time for maintenance on the Somali Website. Fortunately, as it’s been up
since 1997 and more or less complete since ’99, there isn’t much in the way
of updates required; one of the benefits of having an historical website that
we didn’t think about at the time! (June 2005 - We have taken care of the
issue of all the annoying and distractive Tripod ads and pop ups on the site;
you’ll notice the difference immediately if you’ve visited the site before.)
A
Definitive History Of The Somali Cat
Our 1998 Lycos Review
Note: Lycos
is a registered trademark of Carnegie Mellon University.
Websites do not apply for consideration of
this award,
the decision
is left entirely to the anonymous reviewers.
And then there are our English Toy Spaniels!
We hope to be showing next
year when the ruby girls can compete as adults. The ‘doggy’ website has been
sorely neglected, but as it’s just a fun, personal web page there’s no guilt involved!
I would love to have some time to work on adding the pictures of the ruby
puppies and some of the show photos from last season but time is the one
thing in really short supply!
Two new additions, Chanty and Fable, were
born on July 6th!
Our first bred-by Ruby boy Wimsy’s Hornpipe Sea Chanty
And his Black and Tan sister Wimsy’s Fable Of The
Bagpipe
Email
Updated 1/29/06