Description:
English delft circular, shallow dish with blue decoration and an applied foot rim. The well is decorated with three buildings with penants flying, four tall sponged trees, and a long wall with tufted foliage growing along the base and an open area in the foreground marked with slanted lines, all surrounded by two blue bands. The subject of this large dish remains a mystery; some scholars and authors have speculated that the dish depicts three pottery kilns. In the 18th century, North Staffordshire potters developed ceramic kilns placed within a bottle-shaped structure called a hovel. Kilns are a rare decorative motif for delftware, and one of the few known examples shows a conical kiln spewing smoke into the air. These three buildings with fortresses behind share similarities with other general village landscapes. The decorative rim border of swags and 3-part tassels relates to a Brislington dish of Catherine of Braganza in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum; fragments of a bowl with sponged trees have been excavated at Vauxhall in London. The reverse of this dish is coated with a lead glaze, usually thought to be a cost saving measure.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+91.155 |
