The surface of a finely potted earthenware platter has been heavily loaded with a variety...
The surface of a finely potted earthenware platter has been heavily loaded with a variety of transparent enamels which add brilliant color while still allowing every element of an elaborate transfer-printed border and oriental center scene to shine through. The result is one of the finest--and most popular--examples of this decorating technique found in British ceramics.
The intriguing center scene provides the suggestive details responsible for the multiple nicknames that have been attached to the pattern: "Apothecary," "Physician's Visit," "Parasol". At a table set outdoors beside a rustic stream a grand lady--flanked by her children--receives a mysterious guest. Across the table sits a turbaned gentleman who manipulates a device which very well may be a strange sort of mortar and pestle. Our visiting physician or apothecary is shielded from the sun's rays by an over-sized parasol born by a servant or assistant. Abundant curious details range from the implements on the table, to an improbable garden folly, to--most curious of all--the hairstyles of the bareheaded figures.
The colorful center scene seems pale in comparison to the panache of the border. A symmetrical arrangement of scalloped reserves and folliage surround the oval center. The larger reserves contain detailed floral motifs; the smaller, tiny birds--both sizes set off by the unusual use of a thick line of dark blue enamel. It is the ground, however, that gives the entire pattern its drama. A field of tiny florets is enameled over in a bright tomato red that may be found in other painted pearlwares of the period, but probably never to such great effect.
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