Francesca Mascitti Lindh "Herbarium" Dish

A handmade stoneware dish, designed by Francesca Mascitti Lindh and produced in the Art Department at Arabia, Finland, circa 1960.

The coloured decoration at the centre of the dish has been created using different clays; the blue and white hues come from the material itself rather than an applied glaze. These contrasting clays have been pressed into the stoneware surface and worked into an abstract botanical composition, over which Lindh has incised an expressive depiction of branches and berries. An iron-rich glaze has then been freely applied across the surface, giving the surrounding stoneware its varied, earthy brown colour.

The dish has an irregular scalloped edge, loosely suggestive of a leaf, and is raised on three small feet. Although conceived as a functional object, its graphic composition also lends itself particularly well to display, including as a wall-mounted piece.