Bloomsbury Fine Art & Antiques
Portland, OR
Details
- Dimensions
- 9ʺW × 1.25ʺD × 9ʺH
- Styles
- Baroque
- Period
- Late 19th Century
- Country of Origin
- Portugal
- Item Type
- Vintage, Antique or Pre-owned
Shop Sustainably with Chairish
- Materials
- Pottery
- Condition
- Good Condition, Original Condition Unaltered, Some Imperfections
- Color
- Green
- Condition Notes
- Excellent condition Excellent condition less
- Description
-
A fabulous large antique Palissy Ware 'grotesque' pottery majolica plate, made by Manuel Mafra (1830-1905), Portugal, Circa 1880.
The plate … more A fabulous large antique Palissy Ware 'grotesque' pottery majolica plate, made by Manuel Mafra (1830-1905), Portugal, Circa 1880.
The plate made in the last quarter of the 1800s by the pioneer of Palissy ware style pottery in Portugal, Manuel Mafra is credited with creating pottery made my Bernard Palissy in the 16th century and then influencing a host of other such potteries in Portugal.
This plate is typical of Mafra's work; having a rich treacle colored glaze with a background of 'moss' and modeled with three dimensional creatures, featuring a lizard, a large frog, a snake and a small turtle.
The plate with an impressed crown stamp to the verso, and "M. Mafra Cadas Portugal", the plate is in excellent condition, no damage or restoration and is ready to hang on your wall or decorate a surface.
Manuel Mafra's pottery is shown in many museums worldwide, there is a large collection featured at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Palissy ware is a 19th-century term for ceramics produced in the style of the famous French potter Bernard Palissy (1510-1590), who referred to his own work in the familiar manner as rustique ("in the rustic style"). It is therefore also known as rusticware. Palissy's distinctive style of polychrome lead-glazed earthenware in a sombre earth-toned palette, using naturalistic scenes of plants and animals cast from life, was much imitated by other potters both in his own lifetime and especially in the 19th century. In this revival, pottery in Palissy's style was produced by Charles-Jean Avisseau of Tours, who rediscovered Palissy's techniques in 1843, his relatives the Landais family of Tours, Georges Pull of Paris, Maurice, and Barbizet.
The number of 16th-century pieces attributed to Palissy himself is now much less than in the past, and attributions tend to be cautious, as for example: "workshop or imitator or follower of Palissy".
Portuguese Palissy ware was produced by the potteries of Mafra, Jose Alves Cunha, José Francisco de Sousa, Cezar, Herculano Elias, and Augusto Baptista de Carvalho. It is now difficult to identify which 16th-century works in the rustique manner are actually from Palissy's own workshop except by comparison with either fragments excavated in 1878 from remains of the grotto that he certainly decorated at the Tuileries Palace for Catherine de' Medici, who called him to Paris in 1566 or from excavations at the site of his Paris workshop in the Palais du Louvre. Many museums have now become cautious in their attributions.
This distinctive style of pottery is characterized by three-dimensional modeled, often aquatic, animals such as snakes, fish, lizards, frogs, and snails arranged onto large platters (wall plates, wall platters, chargers). Typically, each component is modeled and painted individually
Manuel Mafra, the Portuguese potter, born in Caldas de Rainha, Portugal, 1830–1905. At Caldas, Mafra pioneered a style of Palissy ware that featured a distinctive usage of moss as a decorative bed for fish, lizards, and insects, a style quickly adopted by other Portuguese manufacturers of Palissy ware. less
Returns & Cancellations
Return Policy - All sales are final 48 hours after delivery, unless otherwise specified in the description of the product.
Bloomsbury Fine Art & Antiques
Portland, OR
Questions about the item?
Featured Promoted Listings
Related Collections
- Mackenzie Childs Decorative Plates
- Kosta Boda Decorative Plates
- Davenport Decorative Plates
- Antique Copper Finish Decorative Plates
- Spanish Revival Decorative Plates
- Chelsea Porcelain Decorative Plates
- Amethyst Decorative Plates
- Hot Pink Decorative Plates
- Boch La Louviere Decorative Plates
- Tiffany Studios Decorative Plates
- Porcelain Royal Copenhagen Decorative Plates
- Kinkozan Decorative Plates
- Eggplant Decorative Plates
- Jeff Koons Decorative Plates
- Worcester Porcelain Decorative Plates
- Giltwood Decorative Plates
- Theodore Haviland Decorative Plates
- Oak Decorative Plates
- Bernardaud Decorative Plates
- Cinnamon Decorative Plates
- Hermès Decorative Plates
- Walnut Decorative Plates
- William Adams and Company Decorative Plates
- Blue Royal Copenhagen Decorative Plates
- Japanese Decorative Plates