Dish

The dish is complete; a small chip is missing from the top and there are a few enamel chips on its face and rim, particularly at the corners. 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 a bluish-white enamel; there are burrs of enamel under the dish, near the rim. There are small holes in the enamel on the reverse. Three traces of linear and triangular pernettes are visible under the marli. The dish is cracked. There are areas of amati enamel on the inner base, as well as small linear marks on the fulcrum. The decoration is molded and hand-painted in blue. It was traced in black and painted dark blue underglaze. The decoration is geometric and vegetal. It is of the floral basket and compartmentalized braid type. The molded decoration can be seen on the wing, in the form of small gadroons in relief. 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. On the narrow wing, the braid is made of a row of half-circles outlined in black with a blue-painted core. The junction between the half-circles is adorned with a slightly raised blue-painted pearl. This braid is separated from the inner braid by a wide blue-painted band. The inner braid is outlined in black 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 two motifs in reserve. The main motif, in reserve, is a wing-shaped quarter-flower flanked by scrolls in black. The flower is adorned with blue radiating lines. The other main section features a latticework of small pearls, all in black. Between these two main sections is a third, consisting of a half-flower outlined in black and painted blue. All are separated from each other by a vertical band 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 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 in grayish blue. It is filled with a few large flowers, leafy stems, two of which extend from either side of the basket, grapes and two bunches of grapes with a hanging tendril. These flowers, leaves and grapes are outlined in dark blue, almost black, 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 there are arranged in a 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.