The components of this work are all wheel-thrown, having been produced when Zauli was committed to working on the potter’s wheel almost exclusively. The subtle and varied glaze on Forma became known as Bianco Zauli or Zauli White, and is a result of his experiments with wood ash, zirconium, silica, and quartz during the firing process.

A native of Faenza, Italy—the namesake of the French term faïence, or tin-glazed earthenware—Zauli was drawn early to his region’s renowned ceramic tradition, enrolling in the city’s Royal Institute of Ceramic Art in 1937 at the age of eleven. In the early years of his career he worked exclusively in the low-fire earthenware and tin glazes typical of Faenza potters. However, in the mid-1950s he began a period of great experimentation and made what was considered a radical decision in Faenza: to work exclusively with stoneware rather than earthenware clay bodies. Stoneware production—largely a northern endeavor—had little precedent in Italy, and indeed Zauli said that his early forays into high-fire stoneware production were “like exploring a sea floor still unknown.”