Fruit-plate with Bacchusdetails

A plate, intended for fruit, presents the mask of a little Bacchus ornamented by a crown of vine-leaves, which form a basket ready to receive the bounteous gifts of tht god by whom every tree and every product of he garden was protected. The idea is a pleasing one, that from underneath a mass of heaped-up fruits, gradually appears, uncovered, the smiling face of a deity to whom mankind owe the choicest treasures of the garden and the orchard. Used as a sideboard decoration this plate would have an effect no less brilliant than agreeable, [...] according to the fashion of former days. In order to render it available for a table, a stand has been added in an appropriate style composed of the twining roots and branches of trees upon which the plate rests, like a sun-flower on its stem, clasped round with ivy and embellished with shells and flowers. (p. 114)