Enoch Wood and Sons' "Belzoni" pattern is built around scenes of exotic, Middle Eastern or...

Enoch Wood and Sons' "Belzoni" pattern is built around scenes of exotic, Middle Eastern or Northern African scenery -- often featuring men in Moorish costume pursuing exotic game. 

The large size of this black transfer printed platter allows space for a well developed garden-like landscape, including classical ruins and a view of distant water and mountains. The nomad hunters appear in the center, taking a moment for camaraderie, their guns tossed aside or leaning against the classical fragments. 

The scale of this platter also gives ample opportunity to display the rich "Belzoni" border to great advantage.  Scenic vignettes and luscious grape clusters stand in rich contrast against the solid printed ground underscoring the scalloped profile of the platter.    

In their listing for the "Belzoni" pattern in Volume one of The Dictionary of Blue and Whi...

In their listing for the "Belzoni" pattern in Volume one of The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottey 1780-1880, Coysh and Henrywood point out that "Belzoni" was the name of an Italian traveler and Egyptologist who had settled in England in 1803.  His primary fame lay in an exhibition of antiquities which he had organized in London in 1821 (shortly before his death in 1823). While the connection with Belzoni the man is unclear, Wood's pattern of a decade or so later combines ancient architectural elements with the exotic locale dear to travelers and devotees of the Romantic movement.