Saucer

• CE00227
• 1676-1725
• Faience: Fired - Glazed - Painted

This is an alternative version of traditional saucers made in clay, glass or silver. These saucers were used as a platter at the table service, with one or more recipients for drinking on top. Similar saucers exist, but without the holes to insert the vases, which seem like an improvement to the general saucers. The ones made in Talavera de la Reina usually have five holes, and were mostly used just to hold glasses or seasonings. But the general shape of this work follows more closely that of the saucers, than the pieces for holding glasses or spices.

Of note is the lanscape decoration around the bird, represented over a vegetable covered floor and surrounded by branches. Branches and leaves surrounding flowers also appeared in china wares from the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, pieces created specifically to be sold in European markets. The drawings of three parallel branches with a flower or fruit at their sides is an iconographic motive used in Spain, and derives from a Chinese design. The saucer belongs to the fern series of Talavera de la Reina (serie de los helechos), also known as the Chinese series of swallows (serie chinesca de golondrinas). There are plenty of works from this series, which were made during the 17th century and until the first half of the 18th century, following the fashion of Chinese porcelains.