Portugal has a centenary tradition in ceramics. Originally the art of tiling was brought by the Moors to the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century, and was later reintroduced in Portugal at the end of the XV century by King D. Manuel I, later developed in its many forms, first with Italian and Dutch influence and later with the influence of the Portuguese empire, namely after the settlement of the Portuguese colonies in India and China in the early XVI century. The Azulejo, the Portuguese tile was born. After the 1755 massive earthquake, Lisbon’s reconstruction lead to an enormous increase in the use of the Azulejo, a fast, cheap and very aesthetical way to wall cladding, and to the inherent creation of many mass production factories, including of the Azulejo Pombalino, a tile with almost no decoration seen all around Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Some of this factories still exist today, like Fábrica Sant’Anna. Blue Ceramics doesn’t claim to come from that centenary ceramic tradition, we don’t even have decades of history, so that maximum we claim is that we were born under its influence and that we lived our lives immersed in this collective imagery.
