Dish

The dish is complete; a break has been repaired with iron studs. It is octagonal in shape, with a plain outline. In cross-section, the dish has a narrow, flat wing with a rounded junction with the flange. The latter slopes towards the center. The wall is curved and its lower part is curved towards the bottom, which is almost flat. On the outside, the wall is concave and extends from the rim to the bottom. The body is beige. The glaze is bluish-white, with a thick burr under the outer rim. The enamel covering the face of the dish, as well as the rim, are slightly missing. Three traces of linear and triangular beads are visible under the marli. The dish has a central break, repaired by four rusty iron spikes made from a double iron rod, each inserted into a pair of small circular holes drilled in the back of the dish and held in place by a hard white paste. The ends of two of the spikes are visible on the inside of the dish ; The decoration is hand-painted in blue. It was traced and painted in pale blue under glaze. The decoration is geometric and vegetal. It features a flower basket and compartmentalized braid. The decoration is painted on the inside of the dish, i.e. on the wing, on the upper part of the marli and on the bottom. On the wing and marli, the decoration is tripartite, with two braids separated by a band. The decoration is on the inner part of the narrow wing: it consists of a row of ovals traced in blue with a blue-painted core, resting on a thin fillet traced in blue. The junction between the half-circles is adorned with a blue-painted pearl. This row is separated from the inner braid by a wide blue-painted band. The inner braid is outlined in grayish-blue and painted blue. It is trimmed with two main sections and a third, shorter section, all repeated alternately. One of the sections is composed of a repeated reserve motif, the elements of which are arranged in a mirror-like fashion. The main motif, in reserve, is a central half-flower set between two wing-shaped quarter-flowers, themselves set between two scrolls. The half-flower is partially painted pale blue, while the others are adorned with blue radiating lines. The other main section consists of a fish-scale section, made up of three rows of half-ovals traced in blue with an off-center core painted in blue. Between these two main sections is a third, made up of a half-flower traced and painted in blue. Painted at the corners of the dish, it is bordered by two blue-painted arcs, while the side is in reserve. The central motif, at the center of the dish, consists of a wicker basket filled with flowers. The basket rests on a low base that appears to be made of fawn feet, and rests on a small terrace. Made with a straight horizontal line, the terrace is drawn in dark blue, almost black, and painted blue; the base is drawn in dark blue and painted pale blue. The basket has a truncated cone-shaped profile, with walls that flare out at the top; its bottom and top edge are flat. It is made of vertically curved plant stems outlined in dark blue, almost black, and trimmed with thin horizontal lines outlined in the same way and painted pale blue. It’s filled with a few large flowers, leafy stems and two bunches of grapes with a hanging tendril. These flowers, leaves and grapes are outlined in dark blue and painted in blue. The flowers painted in the central vertical axis of the basket, which are superimposed, act as a dividing line between the two areas on either side of this axis: the flowers, leaves and grapes in them are arranged in mirror effect on either side of this axis. The central flower is seen from three-quarters up, while the adjacent flowers are seen from the front.