Ornamental plate

The gilt scroll, flower and leaf-line ornaments protrude from the blue-glazed base of the narrow, slanted rim of the plate. The surface shows a stylised flower composition: a Cyprus springing from a flower stem, with symmetrically arranged zinnia, hyacinth and pomegranates. The piece was modelled on early sixteenth century dishes from Turkey, Isnik. The ornaments are painted in bright blue, green, pink and transparent brown colours with blue contours, without shading. A polychrome design of the plate can be found in the archives of the Janus Pannonius Museum in Pécs (Inv.No. 61.444.36). The companion piece of the dish is in the same museum (Inv.No. 51.1381). According to the note on the design its façon number is 459, the decor number is 88. The note book of Teréz Zsolnay (JVM Inv.No. 1578-91-1584) says: pers. Schüssel 1878 III. pers. bunt. The factory's Decor Book I says it is orig., which means that it was probably modelled on one original plate. This master pieces is the result of Julia and Teréz Zsolnay's trip to Vienna in 1877-1878, where they spent several months in the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts and a motif collecting activity supported by Jakob von Falke. A sixteenth century plate with similar motifs is published by Otto von Falke (Majolika, Kunstgewerbe Museum Berlin, Georg Reimer, Berlin, 1907 p.43, pict.17).