File:BLW Basin with hare and artichoke.jpg

English: Basin with hare and artichoke

Italy, Florentine area, about 1450
Large basins have been depicted in Italian paintings and manuscripts in scenes of dining and cleansing. Washing hands prior to dining and during the meal itself was a standard custom in 15th century Italy. This dish, or basin, may have been used for washing and then kept on display on a sideboard to show off its fine decoration.
The basin is covered with a tin-opacified glaze which gives a bright white covering on which the design is painted. This type of decorative glazing is known as 'maiolica' in Italy. The image on the basin is a hare standing in front of what apears to be an artichoke. Artichokes may have been cultivated in Italy as early as the 9th century.

This basin was made in the latter part of the 15th century in the Florentine region. Another dish in the Victoria & Albert Museum's collection (Museum no. 2593-1856) is a similar shape and size and has the same decoration on the wide rim as our basin here. It is believed that both dishes were made in the same pottery in Montelupo, just outside Florence.