Dish

The dish is complete; a small fragment is missing from the top and there is some enamel missing from its face and rim, particularly at the corners, and some breaks have been repaired with iron wire. The dish is oval with a wavy outline. In cross-section, the wing and marli slope towards the bottom; the marli is on a lower plane than the wing. The wall is rounded and the bottom flat. The reverse side of the dish has a slightly concave center. The base of the dish is rounded. The body is pinkish-beige in color and covered with bluish-white enamel; there are burrs of enamel under the dish, near the rim. There are small holes in the enamel on the reverse and around the rim. Three traces of linear and triangular pernettes are visible under the marli. The dish has four breaks, two of which cross the dish; they are repaired with nine rusty iron wires. They each pass through the dish in a pair of small circular holes, and their ends are twisted to the reverse of the dish; some are held in place by a hard white paste. There are areas of amati enamel on the inner base, as well as small linear marks on the support point ; The decoration is hand-painted; it has been traced (chatironné) in black and painted in dark blue underglaze. The painted 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. The decoration on the wing and marli is tripartite, with two braids separated by a band. The decoration on the narrow wing features a row of blue stripes. It rests on a thin black fillet, separated by dark green dashes. This row is separated from the inner braid by a wide band painted blue. The inner braid is outlined in black and painted blue. It is trimmed with three sections, all repeated alternately. One of the sections is composed of a reserved, repeated motif, the elements of which are arranged in a mirror-like fashion. The main motif, in reserve on a blue background, consists of a half-flower flanked by two scrolls and two quarter-flowers in the shape of a wing. The half-flower is painted in faded blue, while the other flowers are adorned with black radiating lines. The other section consists of a latticework drawn in black and filled with black-painted pearls. Between these two sections is a third, consisting of a half-flower outlined in black and painted blue. It is bordered by two bands of four non-equidistant black lines: the inner portion is painted blue, while the sides are in reserve. The central motif, at the center of the dish, consists of a wicker basket filled with flowers. The basket is truncated cone-shaped, with a flat swollen bottom and a horizontal swollen rim; it is outlined in black and partially filled with a latticework outlined in black and painted blue; the basket’s rendering imitates rattan. From the top of the basket emerge a central half-flower flanked by two aligned leaves; these are surrounded by leafy plant stems and grapes; all these trimmings are outlined in black and painted in blue, sometimes faded, with the exception of the lower leaves, which are adorned with radiating lines outlined in black. The central flower acts as a dividing line between the two zones on either side of this axis: the leaves and grapes on it are arranged in a mirror-like fashion on either side of this axis. The central flower is seen from three-quarters up, while the adjacent flowers are seen from the front. The basket rests on a sort of ironwork-like support, the elements of which are arranged in a mirror-like fashion. It consists of two series of acanthus leaves curving upwards. Beneath the center of the support is a plant motif with a central bead and two plant stems curved in a semicircle and topped with beads. These elements are outlined in black and painted blue.