Italian Futuristic Glazed Ceramic Bon Bon Holder by Nicolaj Diulgheroff for MGA of Albisola, 1920s

Box, bon bon holder with chestnut-shaped lid and knob, glazed and vitrified ceramic, made by Nicolaj DIULGHEROFF for Italian manufacturer MGA "Mazzotti Giuseppe Albisola" in Futurist style, signed below the MGA base. Datable to the early decades of the 1900s. The box is made of clay worked by hand on a potter's wheel, glazed with full-bodied and heavy glazes, glazed in some places and opaque in others, entirely "scratched" by hand with cross lines made with gouges by the artist before firing. Finally, it should be mentioned that Diulgheroff most often signed his pieces only with the initials MGA without adding his name.

Information on artist and/or manufacturer:
The manufacturer of MGA, was founded in 1903 by Giuseppe Mazzotti. It boasts the collaboration of many important artists, among whom, around the end of the 1920s, we also find Nicolaj DIULGHEROFF to whom, in our opinion, the authorship of this small work of art should be attributed. Nicolaj Diulgheroff, a Bulgarian painter, designer and architect who was mainly connected with Futurism, moved permanently to Italy in 1926. He began at this time his collaboration with MGA for which he produced small masterpieces. In 1929 he exhibited at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan, the Futurist Exhibition in Mantua, the I Sindacale in Turin, and the International Exhibitions in Barcelona and Paris. He participated in all the Venice Biennials from 1930 to 1938. In 1931 he was present at the II Esposizione d'Architettura Razionale Italiana in Rome, at the II Futurist Exhibition held at the Galleria Pesaro in Milan and at the Permanente in Milan, in 1933 at the V Triennale in Milan, and in 1935 at the II Quadriennale in Rome. In 1932 he graduated in architecture from the Accademia Albertina and at the invitation of Tullio and Torido Mazzotti, he designed the new "M.G.A" ceramics factory in Albisola, which he called the "Futurist workshop," the construction of which was completed in 1934. In the late 1930s, despite having been interested in the rationalist outcomes of his art for some time, he made some ceramics in the futurist style still for the Mazzotti factory. He still exhibited at the First Aeropainting Exhibition in Rome and at the Futurist Painting and Aeropainting Exhibition in Trieste. After World War II his works participated in numerous historical exhibitions devoted to abstractionism and futurism, and from 1972 he devoted himself mainly to painting.
He died in Turin in 1982.