Dish with bouquets and flower sprays c. 1839

This dish, decorated with bouquets and flower sprays, was made by Fabriek Dominique Denuelle. It's porcelain, which is a very specific material, typically made from kaolin clay and fired at high temperatures. The result is a smooth, white surface, perfect for painting. Here, the flowers are painted using enamel, a glass-based paint that fuses to the porcelain during firing. Notice the gold trim around the edge; that's another layer of decoration, applied and fired separately. This dish reflects the rise of industrial production. Factories like Denuelle were able to produce porcelain on a large scale, making it available to a wider market. Yet, the decoration is still done by hand, a labor-intensive process. The combination of factory production and hand-painted decoration makes the dish an interesting example of the changing relationship between craft and industry. It challenges our conventional categories of fine art and design.