Casgliadau Arlein

Dish, in the form of a tondino, with a deep cavetto and wide everted rim, foot rim pierced with two holes, buff earthenware, coated with an opaque blue-white tin-glaze and painted, the centre with Ceres after a design by Alfred Stevens reserved on an ochre ground within a bound wreath, the rim manganese and white strapwork containing at the top a crowned shield bearing the plant badges of the United Kingdom flanked by recumbent putti; two bearded masks at the side and a wreathed head below, entwined with trailing foliage and fruit, all on blue ground, ochre lip, the reverse with radiating stylised foliage.

In both its form and decoration, this dish is an accurate re-creation of Italian Renaissance maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware). Under the guidance of its Artistic Director, Leon Arnoux (1816-1902), Minton became one of the pre-eminent ceramic manufacturers of the Victorian period.