Ashtray

The straight, round foot supports a cylindrical body. The side is decorated with four rectangular panels of repeated pattern (each pattern is repeated twice on the object). The motifs are painted with "tube technique”, with leafy flower stem or a flower stem and a bird sitting on a tendril, lined by protruding contours. In the case of the bowl with Inv.No. 61.75.1 the inside and the base of the dish are covered with white glaze, the background of the decorating panels is gilt, the leaves are green, the flowers orange, the little bird is blue and yellow. The inside of the other dish is covered with colourless glaze, the outside is black, the background of the panels is colourless (letting the reddish brown of the original material appear), the flowers are painted in bluish white and yellow, the leaves are green, the bird is blue and yellow. The designs for these small pieces were published in the periodical Magyar Iparművészet (Hungarian Applied Arts), Vol 15, 1912, p.210, with an article about ceramic education in the School of Applied Arts. The sculptor Imre Simay and the specialized teacher, Vilmos Schleich, who was called to Pest from the Wiener Keramik workshop, encouraged students to follow the style of decoration of Josef Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte - as it is apparent on these two objects.