Description:
This pair of tureens was used on the dining table either for the service of a pigeon containing food - such as a stew, fricasse, or ragout or also may have been used on the dessert table for a sauce. It was often a conceit of the 18th and early 19th century dining table to serve a dish in the shape of its ingredient. Undoubtedly the tureens provided conversation and amusement to diners. Pair of pigeon-shaped tureens, composed of two molded parts. Base or nest is an elongated oval shape with has been further ornamented with small bits of extruded moss, leaves, and flowers. Covers are molded in a pigeon shaped with feathers, neck ruff, round eye, and curved beak, there is an opening in the tail feathers for a sauce ladle or spoon. The tureens are painted with high temperature underglaze oxide colors of green, orange, brown, yellow, and blue. The nest is painted green overall with a blue band at the lower edge, there are dots of color in brown and orange on the nest, the pigeons are not painted identically, one pigeon is painted with blue wings and a blue collar or ruff, and the other is painted with vertical stripes on the wings with a narrow blue painted collar, both have yellow beaks, and black eyes.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2023.23.2.2 |
