Plaque

Description

The porcelain, possibly bone china, plaque is of rectangular form and features a white body with hand-painted polychrome enamel decoration on the front surface with an undecorated underside. The still life scene portrays a bunch of green grapes placed casually on the corner of what appears to be a simple wooden table. The background is indistinct in soft shades of brownish olive-green. The hand-painted, fired-enamel decoration on this small porcelain plaque possibly was achieved by English artist Thomas Steel. Steel painted porcelain from several factories during the early to mid 1800s. Plaques signed by him portray still lifes with flowers and fruit (including grape bunches resembling the type shown here) and variously bear dates of 1831 and 1846.