Manises lustreware ceramic dish, late 20th century

Manises lustre-painted ceramic dish, 20th century
"Pegasus".
Hand-painted ceramic.
It was sold at the first Universal Exhibition in Barcelona, 1888.
It has very slight lack of polychromy.
Measurements: 42 cm. diameter.
Ceramic dish from Manises, hand-painted and decorated with the metallic lustre technique. On its seat, it reproduces a Greek coin from Ampurias, with the representation of a Pegasus.
Lustre-painting is a ceramic technique that has been used in Manises since the 14th century. The earliest written references we know of (1326) describe it as 'opus aureum', i.e. gilded work. It was widely recognised in Europe, as the book Regiment de la Cosa Publica (1383) by Friar Francesc Eiximenis, which describes the wonders of Valencia, mentions: 'But above all it is the beauty of the work of Manises, gilded and painted in a masterly manner that has already enchanted the whole world, so that the pope, the cardinals and the princes of the world request it for its special grace and marvel that such an excellent and noble work can be made from earth'. Empirically, through centuries of Valencian experience, obtaining the metallic lustre is based on three main factors: the use of a kiln working in a reducing atmosphere, the composition of the pigment and the way it is prepared, and finally the procedure used for its reduction firing. Over the centuries, Manises has used glazes opacified with tin or, later, glazes composed only of lead, silica and alumina, and thus obtained both golden and copper glazes in later times.