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Vandelli, Domenico [Domingos] Agostino
(b Padua, c. 1730; d Lisbon, 27 June 1816). Portuguese scientist, potter and writer of Italian birth. He was one of several Italians brought to Portugal in the second half of the 18th century by Sebastião Carvalho e Mello, 1st Marquês de Pombal, to promote the arts and sciences in Portugal. Vandelli arrived in Lisbon c. 1764–5 and was immediately appointed lecturer in chemistry and natural sciences at Coimbra University and director of the Jardim Botânico. In 1784 he founded the Fábrica do Rocio de Santa Clara in Coimbra, which was later considered to produce some of the best faience in Portugal. Wares included jugs, pitchers, bowls, teapots, coffeepots and jardinières decorated with finely painted floral sprays. A decree issued on 7 February 1787 gave Vandelli the exclusive right to raw materials found in the Beira and Minho regions of Portugal, and in 1788 he was given more land for his Coimbra factory. While in Coimbra Vandelli also manufactured stoneware and experimented with hard-paste porcelain and creamware; in 1786 he had founded a special factory for the production of creamware at the Real Fábrica do Cavaquinho in Vila Nova de Gaia, near Oporto (see OPORTO, §2). In about 1793 Vandelli returned to Lisbon, where he became the first director of the new Jardim Botânico at the Palácio da Ajuda.
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