‘FIGHTING COCKS’ FIGURINES BY URBANO ZACCAGNINI (PAIR)

A wonderful hand painted and lifelike pair of fighting cocks produced in the Monte Oliveto workshop of Urbano Zaccagnini (Florence, Italy) probably in the 1950s. ZACCAGNINI was originally founded in Florence in 1905 as Ugo Zaccagnini & Figli (...& Children).  Its namesake and founder, Ugo Zaccagnini (1868-1937), was born in Pistoia in Tuscany and studied at the Scuola di Disegno Industriale in Sesto Fiorentino.  He next worked as a plaster modeler for the Richard-Ginori Ceramic Company in Sesto before opening a studio of his own in that municipality.  It closed in 1896 when Zaccagnini entered into partnership with six of the most talented artisans and craftsmen in Florence of the time:  Egisto Fantechi, Luigi Ceccherini, Augusto Fantini, Francesco Grassi, Paolo Banchelli, and Giuseppe Conti.  The enterprise was called La Societa Industriale per Fabbricazione della Maioliche Artistiche (the Society for Industrial Fabrication of Majolica Art) and known by the acronym SIFMA.  Zacc