Oval dish
Bernard Palissy
(French, about 1510–about 1590)
Bernard Palissy
(French, about 1510–about 1590)
late 16th or early 17th century
Medium/TechniqueLead-glazed earthenware
DimensionsOverall: 44.5 x 56.5 x 9 cm (17 1/2 x 22 1/4 x 3 9/16 in.)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with the Arthur Mason Knapp Fund and funds donated anonymously
Accession number60.8
On View
On viewClassificationsCeramics
Collections
In the 1550s Palissy introduced an innovative type of pottery decorated with snakes, lizards, fish, frogs, crayfish, and plants-all cast from life for astonishing realism. Palissy transformed useful forms, such as this large dish, into evocations of marshes and riverbeds teeming with aquatic life.
ProvenanceBy 1862, Prince Pierre Soltykoff (b. 1804 - d. 1889); 1862, sold at Soltykoff sale, Paris, lot 522, and bought by Attinborough or Altenborough, London (?); probably with A. H. Dendy, Esq.; 1882, probably sold by Dendy to Mr. F. Thomas; 1883, sold by Thomas to "W.H.W.", possibly William Harrison Woodward (b. 1855 - d. 1941) [see note 1]. By 1960, with Edward R. Lubin, dealer, New York, NY; 1960, sold by Edward R. Lubin to the MFA for $1,000. (Accession Date: January 14, 1960)NOTES:
[1] Information for the provenance of this object is provided by a paper label affixed to the back of the dish. The label bears the following hand-written inscription: "Dish in Bernard Palissy No 522 in Prince Soltikoff's sale at Paris 1862. bought by Attinborough [or Altenbourough] then passed to A. H. Dendy, Esq. - sold to Mr. F. Thomas 1882, and bought by me from him on Mr. Chaffer's recommendation 1883. W.H.W." Edward Lubin, the dealer from whom the MFA purchased the dish in 1960, identified "W.H.W." as W. H. Woodward, whose pottery collection was published in "Majolica W. H. W., Catalogue of a Collection of Pottery belonging to W. H. Woodward," London, 1928. Lubin also identified Mr. Chaffers as William Chaffers, author of "Marks and Monograms on Pottery & Porcelain."
dated 1702
