The Terracotta Museum incorporates pieces from the collector Jaume Vilà

The Terracotta Museu de Ceràmica de la Bisbal has incorporated into its collection around five hundred and fifty pieces of ceramics applied to the architecture of the collector Jaume Vilà. Specifically, these are two donations made in 2022 and 2023.

Painter by trade for more than fifty years, throughout his life Mr. Jaume Vilà has gathered an extraordinary collection of ceramic pieces applied to construction, from tiling pieces to ceramic coverings of all kinds, which make up one of the best private collections in Catalonia. This donation had a precedent in 1992, when Mr. Vilà already made a first donation following the temporary exhibition "Ceramics and construction (private collection of Jaume Vilà)". This exhibition could be visited from November 15, 1991 to January 15, 1992 and is the third exhibition produced by the Terracotta Museum and the second that was scheduled in its current location.

In the 2022 donation, the museum incorporated almost two hundred and ninety pieces of handmade tiles and utensils related to their manufacture. It is a whole set of pieces intended for construction such as blocks, bricks, tiles, tiles or roof tiles. We also find pieces of special sizes and shapes such as pipes and derivations, space tiles or handrails. Among them, we must highlight a set, of great historical value, with incised writings or legends, from names, numbers and various annotations.

In the last donation, made this 2023, we find cladding pieces linked to the artistic movements of Modernisme and Noucentisme. At this moment, the two hundred and sixty pieces of this donation are in the final phase of documentation and cataloguing. There we find a first block with pieces from the Bisbal factory "La Gabarra", many of which were designed by the noucentist architect Rafael Masó, and made by the brothers Joan Baptista and Alfons Coromina. The other large block of pieces are also designs by Rafael Masó, but in this case made in Can Marcó de Quart.

The work of cataloging and documenting this collection can be carried out thanks to the exhaustive work of the Museum's professionals and the granting of two lines of support for the documentation of the Network of Museums of the Counties of Girona. The entry and study of these pieces in the Museum's fund undoubtedly entails a very important qualitative enrichment of the collection and raises the possibility of launching a monographic exhibition on traditional tiles and cladding ceramics that could be seen from towards 2025.