Vista Alegre / Bang Bang Agency. Illustrations for the book 200 Years of Stories, recounting special events from Vista Alegre’s long history, in celebration of its 200th anniversary. 
Creative direction by Catarina Pestana.

Above - Vista Alegre played a major role in the introduction of soccer in Portugal. VA’s founder’s great-grandchildren brought the first soccer ball into the country in 1886 and the first public game was organized in 1889.

Nelson Rockefeller, who had in his art collection several rare porcelain pieces, once commissioned Vista Alegre to produce an exact replica of a piece from the 18th century. The replica was undistinguishable from the original and thus started the process of reproducing hundreds of pieces from his collection, helping to protect his originals.

It is said that the trees that provide shelter around the worker’s village close to VA's factory were brought in ships from all around the world. The most famous one, a Phytolacca dioica, with an estimated age of 194 years and 17 metre height, was classified in 2019 as a tree of public interest.

The story goes that the artists at Vista Alegre once kept a drake in a cage as a source of artistic inspiration. The duck, however, was miserable and started losing all its feathers. It all seemed hopeless until, one day, one of the craftsmen brought a hen to the studio and, upon seeing each other, love blossomed between the two ducks and happiness was restored. Later, they decided to let them loose in the garden.