FIRST PERIOD WORCESTER LEAF PICKLE DISH

England ,c1770

 

   

 

The leaf dish of thin ceramic with slender stem and feathered serrated edge, decorated in

underglaze blue with the "Leaf Vine" pattern of flowers and scrolling vines; the verso molded

with veins, marked with an open underglaze blue crescent

  

Condition: Very good, with only one minute frit to only one serrated edge point, visible only beneath a loupe

  

Pickle Dishes were used as containers for the very expensive Oriental spices that disguised the taste of rancid

of otherwise tasteless foods in the 18th century.  Refrigeration consisted perhaps of only a 55 degree springhouse,

in which foods kept well only a short period of time.  Pickle dishes were made in both leaf and escallop shell forms,

 and are among the most collectible of early English porcelains.

 

The "Leaf Vine" pattern was in use from c1757-1775.

 

3.5" High

 

SOLD