Bowl: C.14-1931

Maker(s)

Maker: Unidentified Deruta pottery

Entities

• Bowl
• broad-rimmed bowl
• tondino

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• Maiolica
• Lustreware

Description

Buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall. Painted in blue and with yellow lustre. Circular with a broad slightly sloping rim and small deep well.
From a central blue rosette, simplified peacock's feather eye pattern radiates over the whole of the upper surface.

Notes

History note: William Morris (d. 1896); Miss May Morris.

Legal notes

Purchased with the Glaisher Fund.

Place(s) associated

• Deruta ⪼ Umbria ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1931-05-05) by Morris, May

Dating

16th Century, first half#
Renaissance
Circa 1500 - 1550

Note

Lustred dishes decorated with peacock feather eye pattern are attributed to Deruta on the basis of sherds found there in the vicinity of kiln sites. The design also occurs on the large display dishes, often described today as piatti da pompa, which are one of the most characteristic products of Deruta potteries in the sixteenth century. There are numerous examples of the design on dishes and bowls of different shapes and sizes. See the Documention. Less commonly the pattern occurs in polychrome, for example on a dish in the Bargello in Florence. The deep narrow well and broad rim of this bowl probably indicates that it was made during the first third of the century. During the 1530s broad-rimmed bowls generally had a wider, shallower well, and they began to go out of fashion after about 1540, possibly because of the fashion for all-over istoriato decoration. The persistence of the pattern into the 1540s is shown by its occurrence on the reverse of a basin in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, which is moulded with the same design as one dated 1546 in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

School or Style

Renaissance