Grey Black Fontaine's Fables ~ Mouse and Oyster Soup Plate 1880

Rare Earthenware Aesthetic Movement Soup Plate

Fontaine / Aesops Fables ~ MOUSE AND OYSTER

Brown Westhead and Moore Potteries

Staffordshire England ~ c. 1880

This is a superb and quite scare transferware plate registered around 1880. The plate measures 10 3/8 " in diameter. The plate is finely potted. The decoration is based on a woodcut etching from the highly coveted Nature series made by Brown Westhead and Moore, most commonly found on architectural tiles. It is transfer printed in a grey black.

There was once a Mouse that lived on a farm. He always had enough to eat and lots of room to run around. Life was easy.

However, the Mouse was bored.

Every day, he would sit by the fence to take a peek at the outside world. He would gaze at mole hills and imagine them to be mountains.

`I wonder what it would be like to travel the world,’ the Mouse thought. ‘I could ride the seas in big ships like an explorer!’

“It’s too risky,” warned his friend, the Pig.

“You know nothing about the world,” said the Sheep.

But the Mouse decided to explore the world. He said good-bye to his friends and home.

After many days of travelling, the Mouse reached a beach.

`What a wonderful place!’ thought the Mouse. ‘I can smell the sea!’

Then, he saw an Oyster that the tide had washed on to the beach. The Mouse had never seen an Oyster

before.

`This must be the ship that explorers travel on!’ thought the Mouse.

The Mouse put his head inside the Oyster’s shell. The Oyster, at once, closed its shell and killed the foolish Mouse.

Little knowledge can be harmful.

The plate is in EXCELLENT condition, with no chips, cracks, hairlines or repairs.