Giuseppangelo Fonzi: Industrial Fabrication Promoter of
Porcelain Prosthetics By Bernard Kurdvk Fig. 1. Giuseppangelo
Fonzi at age 40. (In Giuseppangelo Fonzi. Bartieri, Antonio
Pavia, Rassegna Trimestriale di Odontiatria, 1958, 2:134-179)
The use of porcelain in dental art dates back to the middle of
the 18th century. An apothecary at Saint Germain-en-Laye by the
name of Duchateau is the first to have been known to manufacture
prostheses neither in bone nor in wood, but in imputrefiable
materials. Then, Nicolas Dubois de Chémant, Parisian dentist and
surgeon, modified the paste composition in porcelain and more
useable results were obtained. A 15-year apprenticeship would
follow before "dental fabrication and denture paste from
incorruptible minerals without putrefaction" was made on
September 16,1791. However these prostheses were manufactured
from a single large piece, which, according to critics, hindered
the denture's adjustment at the base of the mouth. Then came
Giuseppangelo Fonzi, a few years later,