A Barbotine Dish, Frog, 19th Century

Beautiful barbotine - Palisy follower 
with orange frog on foliage background, accompanied by snake, snail...

In ceramics and pottery, barbotine is clay paste mixed with water. Barbotine decoration consists in adding barbotine reliefs to pottery, and pottery decorated in this way is called “barbotine”.
Bernard PALISSY 
French ceramist, writer and scholar (Agen circa 1510-Paris 1589 or 1590).
Having mastered the art of enameling, he began producing the famous tableware for which he became renowned in 1555. His “bassins rustiques” are large dishes decorated with animals or shells in relief: a running hare, a crayfish spreading its long legs, a climbing lizard.
His enamelled pottery, known as figulines, decorated with animals and plants moulded au naturel on dishes and vases and covered with brilliant glazes, was much imitated by his disciples, and then in the 19th c., notably by Ch. Avisseau. His research led to significant technical advances in the diversification and blending of glazes.