Salad bowl

The bowl is complete; there is some enamel missing from the rim, particularly at the corners. The bowl is square in shape, with a wavy rim; the top of the rim at the corners is concave. In cross-section, the rim is in line with the wall, which is flared at the top. The wall curves towards the bottom, which is flat. The bowl rests on a ring-shaped foot. The body is pinkish-beige in color and covered with a bluish-white glaze; there are burrs near the rim on the reverse. Three traces of linear, triangular beads are visible on the reverse. The foot is unglazed. The foot is pierced by two aligned circular holes, the inner wall of which is covered with enamel; the holes are broken. The inner base is covered with amati enamel and numerous small linear marks ; The decoration is hand-painted; it has been traced in black and painted dark blue underglaze and red overglaze. It is of the compartmented braid and floral basket type. The painted decoration is applied to the wall below the inner rim and on the inner base. The wall is decorated with a horizontal braid drawn in black and trimmed with two alternately repeated motifs. The top of the braid has run off in several places. One of the motifs, in reserve, is a central half-flower framed by two wing-shaped quarter-flowers flanked by two volutes; these flowers are adorned with radiating lines traced in red. The other motif is a latticework drawn in red, each diamond of the latticework adorned with a blue-painted pearl. These two elements are delimited by a reserve tongue, with a wide, solid vertical line in the center, drawn in black and painted blue. The central motif is a wicker basket filled with flowers. The basket rests on a shallow, splayed base that appears to be made of fawn feet, with the lower part horizontal. The base is outlined in black and painted in faded blue. The basket is truncated cone-shaped in profile, with walls that flare out at the top; its bottom and top edge are swollen and flat, although its top is double. The basket is made of vertically curved plant stems outlined in black and trimmed with thin horizontal lines painted red. It is filled with a few large flowers, leafy stems and two bunches of grapes; a tendril hangs from each side of the basket. The flowers are drawn in black, with red radiating lines; some are also painted in faded blue. Leaves and grapes are outlined in black and painted 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. The tendrils are outlined in red.