An armorial charger made in the Valencia region, probably Manises, from tin-glazed earthenware with cobalt blue and lustre decoration. The rim is decorated alternately with gadroons, a technique deriving from contemporary metalwork, containing block lustre and flower heads of different varieties. The centre is outlined with a band of cobalt blue and contains bands of dot-and-stalk motifs or solfas, flower heads, and wheels or orange segments.[1] At the centre is a shield, outlined in cobalt blue, containing a rampant lion; a motif often associated with Iberian coats of arms. The reverse is decorated with fern leaves and a radial rosette on the foot.

Both the motifs and the presence of a heraldic shield, rarely seen on lustreware beyond 1500, suggest a late-15th-century date.[2]

A similar dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (no. 29.100.135), is dated to the first half of the 16thcentury. It shares the same composition and motifs with our dish, with only a different coat of arms substituted. Another dish in the same collection (no. 91.1.427a) shares the same motifs though is a brasero or flat-bottomed basin rather than a charger. Other dishes from Manises with the same repertoire of motifs, gadrooned rims, and armorial decoration can be seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum: a dish dating to 1450–1500 (accession no. 168-1893): a bowl dating to ca. 1500 (accession no. 550-1864); and a dish dating to ca. 1500 (accession no. 309-1893).

The technique of lustreware, the glazing of ceramics with metal oxides to create an iridescent finish, was first developed under the Abbasid Caliphate in present-day Iraq. The technique arrived in Spain by the twelfth century while under Islamic rule.[3] By the 15th century, Valencia had become the centre of production in Spain. Wealthy families, particularly from Italy, frequently commissioned Hispano-moresque dishes with their own arms. Though in this case, the lion may be used as a pattern or signifier of status rather than a specific coat of arms.

This dish was owned by Henri Blay (861–1920) a French cavalry officer and avid collector of ceramics. He owned around 65 maiolica dishes, and around a dozen Hispano-moresques, some of which he had probably inherited from his parents. Blay returned from the First World War in very ill health, dying shortly after. His collection was passed down through his family for at least 115 years.

[1] As defined by Anthony Ray in Spanish Pottery 1248-1898, with a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 2000, p. 91.

[2] Ibid., p. 90.

[3] Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘Dish’, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/471812 retrieved 03/07/26.