During the eighteenth century, potters working in the Italian tradition of tin-glazed earthenware had to compete with porcelain, this most fashionable new material. They made their wares thinner and adopted porcelain shapes.
This plate, made in Lombardy, northern Italy, has a sketchily drawn, vivid depiction of oriental figures an animals amongst trees. The figures and trees are spread out evenly accost the surface very much like a pattern on painted wallpaper or textiles.