Copies of the vast legacy of Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro and his son, Manuel Gustavo Bordallo Pinheiro, until 1920, currently produced by the hands of the Factory’s craftsmen, using centuries-old techniques.
In 1896, Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro registers the patent of its ceramic swallows probably realizing that it could become a true Portuguese symbol.
He wasn’t wrong, the artist’s flights of swallows started inhabiting houses, in Portugal and in several countries where Portuguese people lived (easy to identify by the swallows).
In 1896, Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro registers the patent of its ceramic swallows probably realizing that it could become a true Portuguese symbol.
He wasn’t wrong, the artist’s flights of swallows started inhabiting houses, in Portugal and in several countries where Portuguese people lived (easy to identify by the swallows).
The sardine, with its silvery blue and black hues, darker on the back and lighter on the sides and belly, is found in the northeast Atlantic and the
Mediterranean Sea, where it dwells on coastal areas, between 25 and 100 meters deep.
It undertakes migrations in large shoals that protect fish
from predators during the day, in deeper waters, and move at night-time to shallower waters
to feed on algae and small crustaceans.
It reproduces from October to April, a time when sardines
are leaner and not so tasty.
The sardine is the most popular fish in summer festivals and fairs in Portugal, as well as the main species used in the
Portuguese canning industry.
Zé-povinho is an excellent creation by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro.
Born in a satire newspaper, "A Lanterna Mágica", in 1875, it is the symbol of modest Portuguese people, who pay everything laughing at everything, naive, sensitive and suspicious.
Zé-povinho is part of the collection of the famous ceramic moving figurines created by Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro.
The sea bass has an elongated silvery gray body with blue hues.
It dwells in the northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, where young sea bass
can be found in shoals near estuaries, due to this
species easy adaptation to low-salinity waters.
Adult sea bass dwell in waters up to 100 meters deep, living a more solitary life.
This species feeds on fish, crustaceans and molluscs.
It reproduces from January to April.
The striped red mullet is a small reddish fish.
It can be found in the northeast Atlantic and
the Mediterranean, where it dwells at the bottom
of the sea, up to 100 meters deep.
This species forms shoals and feeds on crustaceans, small
molluscs and fish.
It reproduces from late winter
to early summer. Juvenile striped red mullets
live closer to the surface, only moving to deeper
waters once they’ve matured into adulthood.
Their two chin barbels contain chemosensory organs
and are used to probe the sand for food.
The edible crab has a robust shell, wider than it is long, with a reddish-brown colour and two strong claws with black tips.
It is found in the northeast
Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, where it dwells in shallower waters for the first six months of its life.
It then moves to deeper areas, up to 100 meters, including in lagoons and estuaries.
The edible crab feeds essentially on crustaceans
and bivalves, which it captures and kills by squeezing them with its claws.
It reproduces during spring and summer, after females shed their shells.
Female edible crabs carry up to 3 million eggs in their abdomen for six months, during
which time they remains hidden under rocks or buried in holes they dig.
The mussel is a bivalve mollusc with a black, oval shell, which allows it to attach to other organisms.
It is found in the northeast Atlantic and the Portuguese
coast, in estuaries and oceanic habitats, living in rocky intertidal areas, up to 10 meters deep.
It attaches to rocks in large clumps by way of a structure called byssus, feeding of phytoplankton and other organic particles through filtration.
The leaf barnacle occurs on rocky coasts in the intertidal zone, although it can also be found on deeper areas.
It tends to occur in closely associated groups, forming clumps tightly attached to the
rocks.
This is their defence against stormy seas.
Interestingly, the leaf barnacle develops faster
where the sea is wilder.
These crustaceans are resilient
heroes, permanently exposed to the pounding of the waves at the foot of the cliffs.
However, as they have little mobility, they are sometimes
swept away by ocean currents.
The clam is a bivalve that includes many species.
It has a shell that can vary from light gray to dark brown or display cream, brown or greyish hues, with striations and well-marked lines,
presenting a characteristic lattice pattern.
This mollusc lives on the sea bottom, near the coast, or
on riverbeds and lagoons, buried in sand or mud.
It feeds through filtration, with a diet of microalgae
carried by currents, captured through a tubelike structure or siphon.
It reproduces in summer.
The cockle is a filtering bivalve mollusc that lives
buried at a depth of about 5 centimetres in sand or
mud, where it feeds by filtering the phytoplankton
from the water.
When threatened, it can quickly
burrow deeper by the retraction of the foot that keeps it anchored, which manoeuvre sometimes sallows cockles to escape predators.
Cockles are very common and up to 10,000 animals per square meter can be found.
Because of its high tolerance to low salinity environments, it is also frequently found in estuaries.
The horse mackerel has an elongated, gray body with blue hues on the back and silver shades on the belly and sides.
It lives in the northeast Atlantic, the Madeira Archipelago and the Mediterranean
Sea, where it can be found from the surface
to the bottom of the sea, in coastal areas between
100 to 200 meters deep.
It forms large shoals that
undertake substantive migrations, feeding on
small fish, crustaceans and molluscs. It reproduces
from December to April.
Other names for the
horse mackerel include scad, saurel and European
horse mackerel.