Decorative plate

Description

The rise of trade and industry fairs and world exhibitions that were such a characteristic feature of the C19 encouraged ceramics manufacturers to ever higher technical achievement. Splendid vases and wall plates decorated with portraits were particularly suitable vehicles for the historicising taste of the period. The circulation of prints and the application of transfer printing to ceramics facilitated an eclectic mixing of styles. This decorative plate from the firm of Utzschneider & Cie portrays against a rich gold ground the Basle mayor Jakob Meyer zum Hazen, following a drawing made by Hans Holbein the Younger around 1516 in connection with the painted double portrait of the mayor and his wife now in the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel. The decoration around the borders of such portrait dishes was by preference derived from Italian Renaissance ceramics, in this case Deruta. This 'Holbeinplatte' is unique; it is not known who commissioned it, and it was probably an experimental piece intended for an exhibition.