A variety of motifs from nature, ranging from floral sprays to realistic insects to charming and whimsical birds, are scattered across the surface of these crescent shape salad plates. Each image is boldly delineated in black transfer printing and enameled in brilliant colors. The impact of each motif is intensified by the contrast with the blank white ground on which it floats. The only other ornamentation is a traditional brushstroke treatment at the edge.

These salad plates come 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. Bracquemond 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 merchant and designer of art glass, who commissioned the service from Bracquemond and sold it in his Paris shop.

With so much of the history of the Service Rousseau tied in with luxury retailing in Paris, it is no surprise the we can date stages of production from the retailer's marks. Ernest-Baptiste Leveille was a protégé of Rousseau who acquired the latter's shop in 1885. In 1902 he merged with an existing merchant to form Maisons Toy et Leveille Reunies at Number 10 Rue de la Paix. The alliance ended shortly before Leveille's death in 1913.

The crescent shape salad plate (sometimes called a side plate) is one of those auxiliary table ware forms sometimes included in the extensive dinner sets of the latter nineteenth century. It subsequently fell victim to more austere times.