Art and industry in the transition towards the 20th century: the Bordalo’s factory

Abstract

In 1884 a productive unit of ceramics and a school of engineering drawing were created in Caldas da Rainha - a Portuguese small town with a strong tradition of decorative pottery and faience. Previously owned by a joint-stock company, the factory has been founded and managed over two generations by the family Bordalo Pinheiro. Its main strategic purpose being to reform the  Portuguese ceramic industry, the factory tried to gather together all the fields possibly open to modernization. As to the school, it has been given rise to in a context of public incentive and support to the development of Portuguese industry, and it always
oscilated between providing practical, professional training and artistic education. Mutually attracted, factory and school will attempt to a close cooperation for a short period of time. Some features of this cooperation have been regarded by some critics at the time as symptomatic of an «alliance between art and industry». In this essay the author tries to describe these features along a trajectory
which is commonly celebrated as an artistic success, in spite of its financial, technical and commercial failure.