Aluminia Copenhagen Faience Fruit Charger Plate, 1903

Details

Description

Clusters of deep purple-red grapes form the centrepiece of this large Danish faience charger, set against curling green leaves and … Read more Clusters of deep purple-red grapes form the centrepiece of this large Danish faience charger, set against curling green leaves and dotted accent work. The broad sloping rim continues the organic theme with a continuous garland of yellow pears or apples interwoven with sweeping green and mauve ribbon knotwork, all outlined against an off-white ground and finished with a dark rim line. Moulded with a shallow central well and a broad display rim measuring 45 cm in diameter, the charger is executed in traditional tin-glazed earthenware. The lustrous glaze provides substantial depth and gloss to the polychrome palette, reflecting the artistic transition between Arts and Crafts stylisation and Art Nouveau ism that defined Scandinavian art ceramics at the turn of the twentieth century. Produced by the Aluminia faience factory in Copenhagen, Denmark, circa 1903, the piece illustrates the workshop's celebrated revival of decorative tin-glaze production during the period following its corporate union with the Royal Copenhagen porcelain manufactory. The reverse is fully marked with the green painted Aluminia monogram, the pattern and shape reference 529 over 300, the painter's mark 'KH', and an impressed factory stamp in the ceramic body. The charger survives in excellent antique condition, showing clean, vivid colours with no chips, hairline cracks, or repairs. Very fine, stable crazing is present within the glaze on the reverse, wholly typical for early twentieth-century tin-glazed faience. See less