Dish

Description

Many English tin-glazed and molded dishes from the 1600s represent Fecundity, the allegorical figure of fertility and productivity. This popular motif, attributed to French potter Bernard Palissy (known for his realistic molded decorations), was reproduced for over eighty years by the tin-glaze potters at Lambeth, just outside of London.

Dish faces were pressed into molds, and the backs were somewhat crudely finished by hand. The shape was based on metal alms dishes, and they likely were used as commemorative and decorative objects.