Fecundity Dish

The complex origin of this dish's imagery may have begun with prints after frescoes in the royal château at Fontainebleau by Il Rossi, a 16th-century Italian painter. English versions of these dishes derive from French, tin-glazed earthenware examples. They convey aspects of fertility related to marriage and family, as well as the fertility of the earth, reflected by the abundance of fruit on the dish's border.

Affordable and transportable, prints often served as design sources for European artists and craftsmen. English ceramicists adapted prints to ceramic designs as a cost-effective and time-saving way to produce fashionable wares. Although inspired by Chinese blue and white porcelains in color and style, delftware, or tin-glazed earthenware, was often decorated with English print subjects, such as the Dishes and Flower Brick in this case. Coats of arms or crests derived from prints were painted on large sets of table wares, customizing them for a specific patron.

As English ceramicists incorporated motifs from contemporary prints, some artists faithfully copied the originals, while others were inspired by the compositions. Mid-18th-century technology enabled potters to use transfer-print decoration, whereby the image on a print was transferred directly to the wares by soaking it in gum arabic, as in the William Greatbatch Jug. Engravers and etchers employed by Greatbatch created prints specifically for his wares. Prints also served to customize dinner services for individual clients, as in the mermaid crest on the octagonal Platter, indicating it was made for the Scottish family Murray of Polmaise. The floral motif was most likely inspired by the 18th-century interest in plant classification and detailed prints of botanical specimens.