Oval dish - In the style of Bernard Palissy

The oval, deep dish has a broad rim. Its surface is covered with naturalistically shaped animals that live in water, in a still-life arrangement. There is a scrolling grey snake with brown scales in the middle, place on the brown, protruding oval "island" in the middle. The rough, blue surface of the rim is enriched with crayfish, bugs, dragon-flies, a lizard and a frog, leaves of ferns and other water plants, as well as scattered shells and snails. The "island" is surrounded by a stripe imitating waves, where a small catfish swims, together with three different fish in natural size.

The bowl belongs to the revivals of the mannerist, naturalistic pieces of Bernard Palissy (1510-1590), called Rustiques Figulines du Roy. V. Barbizet was one of the Palissy-followers lead by the Parisian Georg Pull.

In the case of the piece described above, the characteristic, faithful following of the model can be detected, including some, almost intentional technical imperfection (see more on this in Mundt 1981 p.70 and Jaennicke 1875 p.839).