Heritage & Progress
I had the absolute joy of spending time in Portugal over the summer and I’ve loved discovering such an amazingly diverse and resonant country.
On one adventure we visited the village of Caldas da Rainha, about 100km from Lisbon. It’s a charming ramshackle little town tucked away behind ceramics museums and the shadow of the better-known Obidos just down the road.
Our visit got me thinking about the value of heritage over the unstoppable force of progress. Everywhere you turn in Caldas you are reminded of an age of grandeur and grace, now being dragged into overgrown gardens and unkempt streets by it’s isolation from the mainstream.
Derelict mansions frame idyllic parks. Ornate street signs faded to obscurity. Art installations overgrown by weeds. And even though there are signs of progress in mansions earmarked for grand hotels and park cafes reopened to bistro-chick, for me, it remains a visual capsule of broken time.
The stalwart of contradiction is the legendary ceramics factory Bordallo Pinheiro. Founded in 1884 this brand has been making dinning ware for over a hundred years. It’s a design so unique and recognizable, that its heritage remains absolute. The milk jug that once adorned my grandmother’s dining table in South Africa is available to buy, today, in Caldas da Rainha. How does a brand manage to build such a strong legacy and remain current?
There are legendary tales of how the local community rallied together to keep the tradition of Bordallo Pinheiro alive in the town when the original founder, and then his heir, passed. I love the humanity in this story, the idea that the craftsmen, potters and townsfolk came together in support of a creative expression, and the love of a craft, that has come to epitomise their town and heritage.
I believe Bordallo Pinherio achieves relevance today because they have embraced both heritage and progress, not forsaking one for the other, by:
1. Never forgetting where they came from.
Fábrica de Faianças in Caldas is the original factory, which still stands today, welcoming visitors and shoppers to a glimpse inside the mind of a creative visionary. They found something that made them unique (tableware as cabbage leaves, anyone?). Believed in their value. And stuck with it through thick and thin.
2. Never letting progress get in the way of their WHY.
Even though they have modernized the designs for some of their ranges and added new lines to the collection over the years, the late Raphael Bordallo Pinherio’s flamboyant style still remains integral to their commitment to creating quirky designs that sit on tables all over the world today.
The real test will be to see if they can retain their brand integrity now as part of global conglomerate Grupo Visabeira.
* Photo credit to my amazingly talented artistic-eyed sister, Ladonna Bentley
