Footed bowl - Triton shaped

On an estate in Holics in the county of Nyitra, purchased from the Czobor family in 1736, Francis of Lorraine (1708–1765), husband of Empress Maria Theresa (1740–1780) founded Hungary’s first faience factory. It employed local (Upper Hungary) Haban craftsmen and French, Lorrainian and German craftsmen, mould-makers, painters and kiln masters. By 1743 it was producing at a substantial rate. The patterns for the Holics products were mainly taken from the Strasbourg faience works, on Francis’ Alsatian and Lorrainian estates, but took many vessel forms and decorations from Rouen and Castelle faience works as well, and used many products of the Meissen and Viennese porcelain manufactories as patterns. Early European porcelain was beyond the financial means of many people, but the grand-looking snow-white faience, decorated in a similar way to porcelain, was much more affordable, and there was a considerable demand for tableware. The golden age of the factory was the period 1750–1780. Sculptures placed on the centre of the table, often on a dais, and sometimes also functioning as serving dishes, were frequent accessories to Baroque tableware. Trompe-l’oeil pieces formed as animals – cocks, pheasants, capons, heads of captured game – or naturalia – cabbages, opening rose flowers, bunches of asparagus, melons and lemons made a splendid if bizarre spectacle at the dinner table. One masterpiece of Holics figural table centres is this representation of Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. He was a mythical composite creature, half man, half fish. The kneeling figure raises above his head a serving dish in the shape of an enormous, broad shell.