Lovely, colorful Italian vase made by De Simone. We're only now beginning to learn more about the different Italian pottery manufacturers. This one was unusual for us in that we were able to tell who the maker was immediately from the mark.

The De Simone pottery was started by Giovanni De Simone in Palermo, Sicily probably in the late 1940s. He was said to have studied under Picasso for a time and you can definitely see it in his work. The factory has continued to produce work under the direction of his daughters up until quite recently.

This vase that we have seems a little less "exuberant" than some of the other De Simone pieces we have seen, but is still wonderful. It features a large yellow flower design along with the stem that stretches around the side of the vase.

Marked on bottom in ink with "DESIMONE ITALY". Also incised with some numbers or characters that we can't read - sort of looks like "SS 90/13".

Vase is in good vintage condition with no cracks or major damage. There are 3 small chips to the base, but at least one may have occurred during manufacturing, because we see some glaze in it. None of the chips are very visible when the vase is displayed. There is also a small manufacturing glaze skip or blemish on the side.

Vase measures about 7 1/4 inches tall, 1 3/4 inches wide at the top and 2 1/2 inches wide at base.