Bowl

A shallow bowl with a six-angle bottom and a six-flake collar, covered with multicolour enamel on both sides. The decoration of the collar from the inside is composed against a white background with representations of multicolour flowers and birds in a yellow, blue and green tone. The sides of the bowl are covered with black enamel with gilded arabesque and flowers with sapphire flakes on the outside. These decorations form a bordure for scenes placed on both sides of the bottom. On the internal side of the six-sided plaque, there is a scene showing St. Anne sitting on the throne and learning little Mary to read. On the outside, on the bottom, there is an autumn landscape with leafless trees and small houses along the road and a sapphire river. On the edges of the collar, traces of two missing 
handgrips are visible. In the left bottom corner of the representation inside the bowl, a monogram I.L. is painted in black (this monogram was used both by Jacques Laudin I and Jacques Laudin II).

Master Jacques Laudin (ca. 1627–1695) was known as Jacques I. His cousin Jacques Laudin (1663–1729), known as Jacques II, created works also in Limoges, where he inherited the workshop. According to a note of the British Museum, Jacques Laudin I was the son of Noël I Laudin (1586–1681), the founder of the dynasty of enamellers.

The bowl is one of the three vessels preserved in Wilanów collections (alongside Wil.208 and Wil.210), with very similar decorations on both sides of the bottom.

All three of them were shown to the Warsaw audience during An Exhibition of Antique and Art Objects in the palace of Count August Potocki and his wife at Krakowskie Przedmieście 32 (today the Museum of the University of Warsaw) in 1856. This one, along with a similar vessel (Wil.210), is described in the catalogue of this exhibition under item 809.

Joanna Paprocka-Gajek