Two very jaunty wild turkeys--plein d'esprit (they are Japanese transplants to France, aft...
Two very jaunty wild turkeys--plein d'esprit (they are Japanese transplants to France, after all)--appear to preen and strut against an unbroken blank ground. The only other elements of the design are tiny images of mosquitoes and a snail. The naturalistic style of the images reveal their derivation from Japanese prints. The platter is bordered by an enameled "feather" or "shell" edge, an eighteenth century touch to an otherwise Japanesque composition.
The platter comes from the famous "Service Rousseau," designed by Felix Bracquemond in 1866 and recognized now as the first significant expression of Japanism in European ceramic arts. Braquemond derived the floating image composition from the printed sketchbooks, the Manga, of Hokusai and derived many of the images from Hokusai and other Japanese masters. The influence of the pattern began with its success at the 1867 Paris exposition and subsequent inclusion in the South Kensington Museum in London (now the V&A). Its influence on English patterns was multi-faceted; its clearest English descendent is Minton's wonderful "Naturalist" pattern.
The pattern's name derives from Francois Eugene Rousseau, Parisian shop keeper and designer of art glass, who commissioned the service from Bracquemond and sold it in his Paris shop.