Capodimonte porcelain Capodimonte porcelain Capodimonte porcelain (sometimes "Capo di Monte") is porcelain created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory ("Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte"), which operated in Naples, Italy, between 1743 and 1759. Capodimonte is the most outstanding factory for early Italian porcelain, the Doccia porcelain of Florence being the other main Italian factory. Capodimonte is most famous for its moulded figurines. The porcelain of Capodimonte, and later Naples, was a "superb" translucent soft-paste, "more beautiful" but much harder to fire than the German hard-pastes, or "a particularly clear, warm, white, covered with a mildly lustrous glaze". The Capodimonte mark was a fleur-de-lys in
The Princess from the Land of Porcelain Room". However, Whistler's modifications were more in-depth than those wished for by Leyland, resulting in a quarrel between the two. In 1892, after Leyland's death, "Princess" was sold at Christie's in London to Alexander Reid; it was sold to William Burrel a couple of years later. "Princess" was acquired by Charles Lang Freer on August 20, 1903, under the title "The Princess of Porcelain" for £3,750 (US$18,240) on Bond Street, in London. He kept it in his home in Detroit, Michigan; the following year he acquired "The Peacock Room". In 1906 he donated both to the Smithsonian. After Freer's death