Limited Edition Dish Peacock Splendour

Dishes with animals of this kind are a popular form of figure modelling at MEISSEN. They were produced in great numbers in the late 20th century and thereafter and - with the daintily painted model of an animal attached - were used as a receptacle for everyday items or as a means of serving snacks.
The dish extends round the exquisitely decorated figure like some proudly displayed peacock fan. Porcelain painter Michaela Hummitzsch has naturalistically rendered the impressive peacock feather in richly-detailed close-up fashion on the flat surface and the beholder's attention is instantly drawn towards its violet eye. The male in particular is regarded as being the oldest decorative bird on account of its striking appearance, and is accorded special symbolic status in virtually all mythologies. In some it symbolises beauty, wealth, kingliness and passion; in others, by contrast, immortality, arrogance and vanity.
Julius Konrad Hentschel was one of the leading exponents of art nouveau at MEISSEN and wrote manufactory history with his iconic "Hentschel Children". Less well-known are the animals he modelled, including our proud peacock.