Glazed ceramic mask with ashtray function by Torido Mazzotti for M.G.A. (Albisola), first half of the 20th century. It has some small flaws in the glaze visible in the photos. Torido Mazzotti, son of Giuseppe Mazzotti, was born in Savona on 31 July 1895. He collaborated, together with his younger brother Tullio, in the management of his father's factory. He studied at the Institute of Arts and Crafts in Savona, graduating in 1914 and at the same time learned to paint under the guidance of Dario Ravano. In the years of the First World War he found work as a designer at the Ansaldo workshops and returned to ceramics only after the war, working at the M.G.A. factory. owned by the family and at the same time attended, together with his brother Tullio, the specialization courses held by Gaetano Ballardini in Faenza. In 1923 he married Rosa Bovio and, thanks to his financial help, opened a factory in Albisola Superiore in the premises owned by the Gavotti marquises called Mazzotti & C. Between the 1920s and 1930s he was one of the promoters of futurist ceramics albisola. In 1925 he presented some of his ceramics at the International Exhibition of Decorative and Modern Arts in Paris. In 1932 the Mazzottis decided to open a new factory and Torido took care of the design of the electric ovens that had never been used in Albisola until then. At the outbreak of the Second World War the factory had to close and in 1944, a few months after the death of his father Giuseppe, Torido and his brother Tullio were persecuted by the Nazi-fascists. At the end of the war they resumed their activity and in a short time, thanks to their fame, they began to host major contemporary artists in the factory again. In 1959 Torido Mazzotti split from his brother Tullio and became, together with his children Bepi and Celina, the sole owner of the family factory to which he gave the name Fabbrica Casa Museo G. Mazzotti 1903. From the 1970s, while continuing to frequent the manufacturing and the artistic world of Albisola, Torido Mazzotti leaves the management of the factory to his son Bepi. He died in Savona in 1988. Some of his works are today preserved in the Mazzotti Museum in Albisola. Apprentice ceramist from the age of twelve at the Fornari kiln in Albisola, after various experiences as a employed potter in Livorno, at the Bonfiglio factory and in Naples at the Picone family, Giuseppe Mazzotti, known as Bausin, in 1903, in the premises of Vicolo del Pozzo in Albisola, he opened a shop where he made chimney caps for the construction industry. Soon the kiln became the Giuseppe Mazzotti Traditional and Modern Art Ceramics Factory and he began manufacturing artistic ceramics on his own, signing with his initials M.G.A. the pieces that come out of the workshop.
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SILVER Seller in Torino, Italia
