Copies of the vast legacy of Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro and his son, Manuel Gustavo Bordallo Pinheiro, until 1920, currently produced by the hands of the Factory’s craftsmen, using centuries-old techniques.
Featured products
Paulo e Virgínia is a replica, on a smaller scale, of the pair of giant frogs created by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro in 1889 and intended to decorate lakes and gardens.
Tradition says that in the factory, Bordallo named these two characters Paulo and Virgínia, inspired by the novel Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, written in 1787. This sculptural group decorated the D. Carlos I Park, in Caldas da Rainha, from 1914 to 1920, as can be seen in postcards of the time, and was present in the Portuguese Pavilion of the 1889 Universal Exhibition of Paris.
The frog couple was exhibited by Raphael as one of the main pieces of his exhibition in Rio de Janeiro in 1899, as he presented his majestic Beethoven Jar in Brazil.
The striped red mullet is a small reddish fish.
It can be found in the northeast Atlantic and
the Mediterranean, where it dwells at the bottom
of the sea, up to 100 meters deep.
This species forms shoals and feeds on crustaceans, small
molluscs and fish.
It reproduces from late winter
to early summer. Juvenile striped red mullets
live closer to the surface, only moving to deeper
waters once they’ve matured into adulthood.
Their two chin barbels contain chemosensory organs
and are used to probe the sand for food.
A piece by Manuel Gustavo Bordallo Pinheiro, who continued his father’s, Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro, work, using a lizard as a naturalist element in a more stylized decoration.
Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro produces a remarkable production of blue tiles for the interior and exterior coating treated as decorative elements of great importance.
Of the tiles with relief, either with patterns or figures, it is important to highlight the originality and quality of the glazes applied manually.
The blue tile of the big frog is a representation of naturalism and Art Nouveau by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro.
The cockle is a filtering bivalve mollusc that lives
buried at a depth of about 5 centimetres in sand or
mud, where it feeds by filtering the phytoplankton
from the water.
When threatened, it can quickly
burrow deeper by the retraction of the foot that keeps it anchored, which manoeuvre sometimes sallows cockles to escape predators.
Cockles are very common and up to 10,000 animals per square meter can be found.
Because of its high tolerance to low salinity environments, it is also frequently found in estuaries.
In 1896, Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro registers the patent of its ceramic swallows probably realizing that it could become a true Portuguese symbol.
He wasn’t wrong, the artist’s flights of swallows started inhabiting houses, in Portugal and in several countries where Portuguese people lived (easy to identify by the swallows).
Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro produces a remarkable production of blue tiles for the interior and exterior coating treated as decorative elements of great importance.
Of the tiles with relief, either with patterns or figures, it is important to highlight the originality and quality of the glazes applied manually. This grasshopper tile is a representation of the naturalism by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro, with an Art Nouveau inspiration, being most recently used as a box lid.
A giant wall leaf.
This is a model by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro, witnessing the naturalist representation of the artist’s ceramic.
Juvenile red porgy are usually found in shallow, sheltered areas, alter migrating to deeper waters.
Adult red porgy mainly live between 50 and 150
meters deep.
Fish of this species can however be found up to 250 meters deep.
Red porgy gather in schools and the largest fish can weigh up to eight kilos.
These specimens are only found far from the shore, in deeper waters.
A piece by Manuel Gustavo Bordallo Pinheiro, who continued his father’s, Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro, work, using naturalist elements in a more stylized decoration.
A piece by Manuel Gustavo Bordallo Pinheiro, who continued his father’s, Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro, work, using naturalist elements in a more stylized decoration.
We know as well as anyone the importance of acceptance and inclusiveness. So openness to others means to reflect our experience and authenticity. Races, languages, creeds, sexual orientations and gender identities make up our culture. And to represent it, as well as our curious and friendly character, the Andorinha da Diversidade [Swallow of Diversity] was born, inspired by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro's original model (and spirit!). Make way because she is here to stay.
The leaf barnacle occurs on rocky coasts in the intertidal zone, although it can also be found on deeper areas.
It tends to occur in closely associated groups, forming clumps tightly attached to the
rocks.
This is their defence against stormy seas.
Interestingly, the leaf barnacle develops faster
where the sea is wilder.
These crustaceans are resilient
heroes, permanently exposed to the pounding of the waves at the foot of the cliffs.
However, as they have little mobility, they are sometimes
swept away by ocean currents.