Dish

The dish is complete; one crack and one break have been repaired with iron spikes and wire. It is rectangular in shape with wavy ends. In cross-section, the dish has an almost straight wing, a sloping rim, a curved wall and a flat bottom. The body is beige. The glaze is bluish-white. Three traces of linear beading are visible on the reverse. The enamel is missing around the rim and under the base. There are two blue painted marks under the base: X Es (or g). There are numerous wear marks under the dish and areas of amati enamel. The dish has a crack and a break; the break is repaired with three rusty iron spikes, while the crack is repaired with two wires. Made from a double iron rod, three of the spikes are 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 wires are in a pair of small holes running through the dish; they are made of a wire whose ends are twisted on the reverse side of the dish, for one, and on the face, for the other ; The decoration is hand-painted in blue. 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 border 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 broad blue lines. It rests on a thin fillet in dark blue; dashes painted in sequence separate the bands. This row is separated from the inner braid by a wide blue band. 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, consists of a central half-flower between two scrolls flanked by two quarter-flowers in wing form, also flanked by scrolls. The flowers are adorned with blue radiating lines. The other section consists of a fish-scale section, made up of three rows of half-ovals traced in black with an off-center core painted blue. Between these two sections is a third, composed of a blue-painted half-flower. It is bordered by two blue-painted bands, while the sides are in reserve. The background features a central flower basket. The basket is truncated cone-shaped, with a flat bottom and bulging rim; it is outlined in blue and filled with a latticework outlined in blue; the basket’s rendering imitates rattan. From the top of the basket emerges a central flower flanked by two half-flowers in a row, surrounded by leafy stems and grapes. All these elements are outlined in blue and painted pale blue. The central flower serves as a dividing line between the two zones on either side of this axis, whose elements are reproduced in mirror image. The basket rests on a sort of ironwork-like support, consisting of a horizontal rectangular stem linking two scrolls that continue as upward-curving, mirrored acanthus leaves, each featuring three small, curved plant stems with blue-painted buds. The center of the support features a plant motif with a pearl pointing downwards, traced and painted in blue. The two scrolls are joined by a hanging drapery, traced in blue, painted pale blue and trimmed with a fringe traced in blue. From this drapery emerge two acanthus leaves, curved upwards and arranged in a mirror-like fashion, framing a double pearl. These elements are traced and painted in blue. There is a flaw in the enamel of the inner background.