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Here we present a brief history of Drioli bottles and related items. Information on Drioli seems to be quite scarce so please feel free to contact us you can add any further information. |
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| Drioli
To us modern-day collectors of "Drioli bottles" we are talking about the decorative, Italian hand-painted majolica decanters, and glass liqueur bottles, bearing the Drioli name, which were produced from the 1950's through to the 70's. In reality though, the company and name of Drioli dates back to 18th century Dalmatia, to a place called Zara, a port city which is now part of Croatia.
It is here that Fransesco Drioli first produced his liqueur made from the Marachino Cherry, a liqueur that became popular in the fashionable quarters of Europe. The early glass Drioli bottles are collectable in their own right; long and square in shape, an aqua-green in colour and often with an elaborate impressed seal bearing on ornate Zara crest. These bottles were encased in a woven straw case to protect them during transportation, a feature which was subsequently used throughout their history . The standard, non-decorative Drioli miniature liqueur bottle was tall, slender and square in shape with a straw wrapper.
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During World War II, the Drioli factory was destroyed (along with pretty much all of Zara), and the company relocated to a place called Mira, near Venice. It is during this time after the war, during the 1950?s, that Drioli started to use fancy, hand-decorated ceramic bottles for their liqueur products, to be sold as souvenir giftware for the burgeoning package holiday market.
Little is known about this period, and why and when the company ceased business sometime in the 1970's. |
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| Luxardo
Luxardo was a rival liqueur company to Drioli, also operating out of Zara in Dalmatia, and producing a similar marachino cherry liqueur which they call "Cherry Ardo". They too have a long and elaborate history dating back to the 19th century. I am unsure which company existed first for to what extent the rivally between them was! There is however a close relationship and similarity between Drioli and Luxardo: many bottles share a distinctly familiar theme, both companies used the Marmaca factory in San Marino to produce some of their bottles, and both used ornate Murano glass decanters too, so I think it's fair to assume there was great competition between them.
Click here to view some more Luxardo bottles.
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Luxardo Gondolda, one of the more common Luxardos
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Luxardo started to use decorative, ceramic containers for their liqueur well before World War II, in the form of amphora bottles, so it is my belief that out of the two rival companies it is they that started the 'fancy' bottles first. It would appear too that Luxardo penetrated the export market to North America better than Drioli, and thus there are more bottle variations, more collectors and indeed exists more documentation for Luxardos than does for Drioli. There is in fact a book published in 1968 called the Luxado Bottles Identification and Price Guide. Although long out of print, it occasionally turns up on the Ebay.com website.
The Luxardo company is still in existence and has a website at www.luxardo.it
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| Marmaca |
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The word "Marmaca" is stamped on the underside of some Drioli bottles. Marmaca was in fact a manufacturer of majolica bottles, operating out of the tiny republic of San Marino, in Italy. They made bottles both for Drioli and for other liqueur companies too, such as Luxardo and Boccaccio. Many Luxardo bottles bear the Marmaca name also.
Maramaca was one of a number of San Marino manufacturers of Majolica wares. They made other items as well as liqueur bottles, such as plates and vases.
Many of the Marmaca items have similar decorations, often using a scrached 'scraffito' scene on black glaze, and typically depicting the San Marino Castle or a familiar country 'cabin' scene.
The Marmaca factory closed down at some time in the 1960's.
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| Murano Glass |
The island of Murano, located just a mile from Venice, has for centuries been famed for producing beautiful, hand-crafted glass, of and incomparable style and quality. Drioli used Murano glassmakers to produce some fabulous glass figural decanters, in the shape of animals and in rich, typical venetian glass colours. I believe most of these were made for the US export market to compete with Luxardo as they are very rarely seen in the UK.
Luxardo also used Murano to make some quite fantastic decorative decanters, often more elaborate than the Drioli bottles.
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| Moving Pictures |
| A number of bottles used by Drioli and other Italian liqueur companies incorporated moving "flicker pictures" in their designs. Some of these bottles are marked "Drioli" on the underside, and others |
| "Marmaca". Boccaccio was another liqueur company which used these type of bottles. Regardless of the label, these are quite collectable in their own right and |
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More information to come as we develop this site. Please, email me with your comments
ideas, suggestions and any nuggets of infomation you may have.
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