Wholesale Small ironstone dish with cobalt-blue daisy transfer decoration, 19th-century style.

Cobalt blue on a creamy ivory ground, daisies running in a border on the rim, the central hexagonal medallion composed of stylized flowers and foliage: this ironstone serving dish is a classic of 19th-century French design. Ironstone, that fine, hard, white earthenware developed in France from the mid-19th century by major manufactories such as Sarreguemines, Creil-Montereau and Saint-Amand, is distinguished by its sturdiness, milky whiteness and the crispness of its transfer-printed decorations. This piece is a fine example. The shuttle-shaped form with upturned edges, the flat oval base, the precisely drawn daisy border: everything here evokes the bourgeois table of the Second Empire or the Belle Époque. The piece is unmarked on the base, which is common for mass-produced items of this period. The earthenware is intact and the decoration vivid and sharp. Length approximately 27 cm. Placed on a laid table, it holds olives, pickles or radishes with the discreet elegance of objects that have endured. In a china cabinet or on a shelf, it brings that timeless blue-and-white that goes with everything.