“Library of an Industrial Ceramist 1880-1980” Exhibition

Exhibition of archaeology of industrial knowledge, which took place on March 20, at 2:00 pm, at the School of Arts and Design, Caldas da Rainha, inserted in the program of MOLDA 2019, initiative of the Laboratory of Design and Arts Research (LIDA) under the CP2S Research Project, Ceramics, Heritage and Sustainable Product – from teaching to industry.

It was a bibliographical presentation of the works that embodied the technical and artistic knowledge of the ceramic industry between 1880 and 1980. A reconstruction of the libraries of Fabrica Bordalo Pinheiro, Fábrica Belo, Secla and Cencal.

The research that led to this exhibition sought to identify the reference works of ceramics industrialists and technicians over a hundred years, since the beginning of modern industry in the 1880s.

This imaginary library was organized into four cores. The first gathered some of the manuals that would have been part of Caldas da Rainha Faience Factory Library and the Industrial School of Caldas da Rainha, emerged in close articulation in 1884 and 1886. The second listed the works of the Laboratory of the Ceramic Workshop of Avelino Belo and Faianças Belo that succeeded him in the 1920s. The third reconstituted the collection of books from the Laboratory of the Sociedade de Exportação e Cerâmica Lda (SECLA) from the time of Alberto Pinto Ribeiro and António Cardoso, in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, the fourth nucleus gathered some of the bibliographies of training and teaching institutions that emerged in the field of ceramics in the 1980s: the Centre for Vocational Training for the Ceramic Industry (CENCAL), the Higher School of Art and Design (ESAD) and the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (IPT).