An unlikely catalogue of the production of azulejos by Fabrica Roseira of Lisbon circa 1870

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century the Roseira factory in Lisbon was one of the most important manufacturers of façade tiles used both in Portugal and in Brazil. “Casa das Bolas”, a condominium building in Lisbon informally named after the glazed tiles decorated with spherical elements in trompe l'oeil of its ground-floor façade, was owned by a member of the Roseira family who erected it using parts of an earlier construction in 1871-72. In its interior can be seen an authentic showcase of patterns produced by the factory and applied in apparently random order under the inside of the window sills and in some service areas. The singularities of this application, associated with the high number of patterns therein (over 50), make it an important reference for the study of façade tiles in the first decades of their use. It is an invaluable source of information about a factory that was possibly the first to produce façade tiles in Lisbon and despite having supplied many of the tiles seen at the Royal Pena Palace in Sintra and at other important constructions of the time, such as the Beau Séjour Palace in Lisbon, remains almost unknown.