Porcelain all decorated up with an erupting Mount Vesuvius to keep all your life long to remember the most exciting part of your Grand Tour. Makes the tea taste better, too.

Naples terraglia cup and saucer, decorated with scenes of Mount Vesuvius erupting, reserved against a blue ground with borders of gilt panels of diaper pattern alternating with foliate scrolls. Early 19th century. Porcelain, Made to sell to Grand Tour tourists. Image © Bonhams 2001-2024. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/29420/lot/455/tasse-et-soucoupe-en-porcelaine-napolitaine-en-terraglia-a-decor-topographique-vue-du-vesuve-fin-du-xixe-sieclea-naples-terraglia-cup-and-saucer-early-19th-century/

A Naples, Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea topographical tureen, cover, and stand, commemorating the various explosions of Mount Vesuvius; on the stand a view of the larger eruption of 1760, on the double-handled ecuelle the explosions of 1766 and 1774, the cover with the eruptions of 1758 and 1757, all under a stylised vine-leaf border, the reverse of the plate with red script: Eruzione anno 1760. ca. 1813-1814. Porcelain. Made to sell to Grand Tour tourists. Image © Bonhams 2001-2024. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/29420/lot/26/terrine-couverte-et-son-presentoir-en-porcelaine-napolitaine-real-fabbrica-ferdinandea-vers-1813-14a-naples-real-fabbrica-ferdinandea-topographical-tureen-cover-and-stand-circa-1813-14/

Naples Poulard Prad decorated cup and saucer, decorated by Raffaele Giovine, depicting scenes of Neapolitan life and landscape, including on the saucer the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1770, 1774 and 1810 and 1822, all dated in black and separated by elaborate gilt and raised gilding on flanking cartouches, the cup with a scroll handle and a titled scene of ‘Napoli dal Campo’ flanked by the same gilt and raised gilt scrollwork and scenes of people in regional costumes after the print sources of Dell’Anna, one titled ‘Costume di Schiavi’ the other ‘Costume di Rivisondoli’, the reverse of the saucer and interior of the cup in solid gold. ca. 1822. Porcelain. Made to sell to Grand Tour tourists. Image © Bonhams 2001-2024. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/29419/lot/206/tasse-et-sous-tasse-superbement-decorees-naples-poulard-prad-circa-1822a-superbly-decorated-cup-and-saucer-naples-poulard-prad-circa-1822/

A Naples, Real Fabbrica Ferndinandea saucer, painted with a circular view of Mt. Vesuvius erupting at night, titled on the reverse in red enamel, ‘Eruzione del’Anno 1794.‘, within a gilt band, the rim with a border of gilt panels and circles tooled with foliate scrollwork and classical urns, gilt borders to the rims, incised S x. ca. 1795. Porcelain. Made to sell to Grand Tour tourists. Image © Bonhams 2001-2024. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/19107/lot/87/a-naples-real-fabbrica-ferdinandea-saucer-circa-1795/

Making a bucket list for your Grand Tour and what to not skip over. Paintings of the often visited tourist attraction the Grotta Azzurra, Capri. Different artists and different times. You can buy a 2024 version too.

The Grotta Azzurra, Capri. 19th c. Oil on canvas. Italian school. Image © Bonhams 2001-2024. Fair use license. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/30162/lot/16/italian-school-19th-century-the-grotta-azzurra-capri/

The blue grotto (La Grotta Azzurra) in Capri. 1861. Danish, artist not known. Oil on wood. Image ©2024 Artnet Worldwide Corporation. Fair use license. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. via https://www.artnet.com/artists/anonymous-danish-19/the-blue-grotto-la-grotta-azzurra-in-capri-h1zMRBnYOFHiZ5VHWaa1Dw2

The Blue Grotto, Capri. 1857-1860. American. Oil on cardboard. Albert Bierstadt, painter (1830-1902). Signed on the lower left. Collections of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. CCo License 0. via https://art.thewalters.org/detail/24607/the-blue-grotto-capri/

Capri – La Grotta Azzurra. 1908 postcard. Domenico Trampetti, Naples, Italy publisher. San Diego College for Women Postcard Collection, University of San Diego, Copley Library Special Collections. Artwork itself in the public domain due to age. https://digital.sandiego.edu/pcsouthernitaly/73/

Grotta azzurra, Capri, Italy. April 28, 2008 image. Frédéric de Goldschmidt http://www.frederic.net, author. Cco License 3.0. via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grotta_azzurra.jpg

Models of triumphal arches cranked out in Roman workshops to sell to tourists on the Grand Tour. If they want to buy something, you might as well sell it to them. A few more that were not made in Rome but are fun anyway.

Arch of Titus. ca. 1808-1815. Marble and gilt bronze. Made in Rome under the auspices of the Roman Academy of Saint Luke by the silversmiths Giovacchino Belli and his son Pietro. Purchased by King George IV. Image © Royal Collection Trust/His Majesty King Charles III 2022. Fair use license. via https://www.rct.uk/collection/43917/arch-of-titus

Arch of Septimius Severus. ca. 1808-1815. Marble and gilt bronze. Made in Rome under the auspices of the Roman Academy of Saint Luke by the silversmiths Giovacchino Belli and his son Pietro. Purchased by King George IV. Image © Royal Collection Trust/His Majesty King Charles III 2022. Fair use license. via https://www.rct.uk/collection/43916/arch-of-septimius-severus

Triumphal arch model built by hand and covered with hand-marbled paper. American, made in 2023 in Birmingham, Michigan. Parvum Opus, maker. Image © 2022 Parvum Opus. Fair use license. via https://www.parvumopus.com/product-page-1/triumphal-arch

Architectural model of a gateway with the top being detachable from the base. Late 19th-early 20th c. English. Bronze. Maker not known. Image © UK ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE LTD. Fair use license. via https://uk-heritage.co.uk/shop/an-antique-bronze-architectural-model-of-a-gateway

Arc de Triomphe inkwell. 1850-1899. Bronze (I think). Made in France. Maker not known. Image © 1995-2023 eBay Inc. Fair use license. via https://www.ebay.com/itm/225026270668?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1WgptRD_3QAarO8CXw_wDYw37&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&

Hand-fans painted with Mount Vesuvius mostly in eruption, a little souvenir something to take home to your girl when you made a Grand Tour in Europe at mid century, the 19th century, that is. One of Stromboli but it fits right in.

Hand-fan painted with a depiction of an erupting Mount Vesuvius and the harbor at Naples. ca. 1790. Italian. Silk or possibly chicken skin folded leaf with gilded black lacquer wood sticks. Maker not known. Image © The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. Fair use license. via https://emuseum.ringling.org/emuseum/objects/13782/fan?ctx=29b65bbe-17ca-47d8-b762-6c693263b1c5&idx=98

Fan depicting the the eruption of Mount Vesuvius over Pompeii in AD 79. ca. 1825. French. Hand-painted parchment, ivory, gilt brass and rhinestones. Maker not known. Part of the exhibit “A Graceful Gift: Fans from the Mona Lee Nesseth Collection” held at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum and Galleries, Los Angeles. Image © Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum and Galleries. Fair use license. via https://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2016/06/women-are-armed-with-fans.html

Hand fan with a depiction of Mount Vesuvius and the harbor at Naples. Chicken skin leaf with twelve tortoiseshell sticks and guards inlaid with red gold foliage on the sticks and foliage and urns on the guards. Reverse painted in the style of Greek vases with Bacchus on a leopard in the center surrounded by bacchantes and maenads in terracotta orange against black. Terracotta orange, black and cream border, inscribed “Figure estratte da un Vaso Etrusco”, ca. 1790-1800. Italian. Francesco Petilli, maker. Image © Glasgow Museums. Fair use license. via http://collections.glasgowmuseums.com/mwebcgi/mweb?request=record;id=196043;type=101

;Hand-fan, the skin leaf delicately painted on one side with a nocturnal eruption of Vesuvius in the Bay of Naples and on the other with a view of the Casina Vanvitelliana on Lake Fusaro, framed by two villagers in traditional costume.ca. 1800-1820. Italian Grand Tour souvenir. Maker not known. Image © Fan d’éventails, Paris. Fair use license. via https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/fan-leafs/4070-lago-fusaro-ans-vesuvio-fan-leaf-circa-1800-1820.html

Grand Tour souvenir fan depicting the eruption of Vesuvius in 1779. The skin leaf painted with three cartels: in the middle, a view of the Bay of Naples with the beginnings of a volcanic eruption, on the right a night view of the eruption of Vesuvius on August 8, 1779, and on the left the ruins of the temple of Serapides at Pozzuoli with a trompe l’oeil of ribbon and engraving. Sticks and guards applied with gold and silver leaf and colored sequins. ca. 1779. Maker not known. Presumably made in Italy. Image © Fan d’éventails, Paris. Fair use license. via https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/18th-century-fans/4052-de-terre-et-de-feu-l-eruption-du-vesuve-de-1779-eventail-du-grand-tour.html

Horn brisé fan inlaid with steel sequins, painted with a nocturnal eruption, perhaps of the Stromboli volcano seen from San Bartolo. ca. 1820-1830. Probably done as a Grand Tour souvenir to sell to young gentlemen making their grand tour. Image © Fan d’éventails, Paris. Fair use license. via https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/19th-century-fans/3666-volcano-at-night-fan-circa-1820-30.html

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