The ceramics collection of Palazzo Madama includes over 4,000 works and is one of the most important in Italy. The original core came from the diplomat and collector Emanuele Taparelli d’Azeglio, who in 1872 donated a collection of porcelain objects from the Vinovo manufacture and in 1874 gave the Museum his own collection of Italian majolica and porcelain from the 1700s, which also includes an important group of works from Vienna from the Du Paquier manufacture and which at the time were believed to be from Venice. D’Azeglio, appointed director of the Museum in 1879, enriched the collection with numerous purchases until 1890.
Considerable growth took place in the 1900s with director Vittorio Viale, thanks to the donations of Emilia Sacco-Oytana and Werner Abegg, the bequest of Ettore Mentore Pozzi, and purchases made through the antiques dealer Pietro Accorsi: these include the majolicas from the Riccardo Gualino collection, a Medici porcelain pitcher from the Chiericati family of Vicenza, and three large porcelain animals from the Meissen manufacture (formerly in theJapanisches Palais in Dresden) stand out in importance.
Over the past decade, some new acquisitions include the D’Azeglio Set (purchased in 2013 at the Bonhams auction house thanks to a crowdfunding campaign, the first ever in Italy), the majolica cup from the workshop of Francesco Durantino, made in Turin in 1578 (gift of the Benappi family, 2018), and the King of Sardinia Set (purchased from Sotheby’s in 2019).
