Ginori 1735 Fortunae Collection

Ginori 1735 has released Fortunae, a collection of porcelain tableware and objects based on the game of Goose, one of the first mass-produced board games, which the Medici court is said to have played five centuries ago. Pricing has not been published.

The game's boards were illustrated with lucky charms and hazards, and Ginori has lifted the charms rather than the hazards. A rectangular ashtray is bordered in red glaze and carries a horseshoe. Dessert plates are printed with a cornicello, the horn-shaped amulet used across Mediterranean cultures to ward off the evil eye. A small oval trinket box is topped with a dragonfly in celadon glaze, a symbol read as auspicious in several traditions rather than a single one.

The more literal pieces stay closer to the source game. A lidded jar is illustrated with four-leaf clovers and topped with a goose-shaped finial, a direct reference to the bird that names the game. The round tray, described by Ginori as the centrepiece of the collection, is sized to function as a catch-all for trinkets or teacups, and its circular format doubles as a board for playing Goose itself, dice included if you supply them.

What is actually new here is the organizing idea rather than any single object. Porcelain houses default to florals or heraldry when they want a theme with history behind it. Ginori has instead gone to a game associated with chance, and built glaze colors and motifs, the red border, the celadon dragonfly, around the idea that luck is a real subject worth decorating a table with. The individual pieces are conventional in form: a tray, a box, plates, an ashtray. The symbolism is the whole argument for buying into the set rather than a single item.