Dish 1690 - 1710

This slipware dish was created in the Staffordshire Potteries. Notice how the central image of a bird-like creature dominates the composition, its form stylized with dark-brown slip against a light ground. The artist has used a limited palette, yet the details are intricate. Lines define the feathers, while small circles and dots add texture to the body. Around the rim, alternating motifs of faces and letters create a rhythmic, almost musical pattern. The structural organization is quite striking. The composition is split into two distinct zones: a central image that draws the eye inward, and a border pattern that contains and frames it. The artist may be playing with ideas of containment and release, the wildness of the creature versus the order of the border. This dish is not just a functional object but a site where visual elements come together to create meaning. The interplay between figure and ground, pattern and image, engages us in a dialogue about representation, decoration, and the very nature of seeing.