Horizontal break restored by a professional workshop
This funny iconography represents thema reproduced throughout the 2nd half of the XVIIIth century (first date approx early 1730's, the last around 1810), relating to French farmers refusing to pay ever more taxes to their overlords. They sit on tree branches , and women try to convince them to return to work with more or less delicate methods (various gifts and presents) or... by sawing the tree, for example.
The rhyming texts surrounding drawing and accompanying it are dialogues between men and women.
Just the whole History of France and our tradition of strikes !!! Again and often today...
This theme was used by ceramic makers mainly during the second half of the XVIIIth century, this one part of the last made, at the very beginning of the 19th century. The colors used are also very carctertic of this period.