Tea tray (Plateau)
Not on view
The composition at the center of the tray shows Venus spanking her son, Cupid, with a spray of roses, illustrating the inscription below: Nul amour sans peine, nul rose sans epine (No love without grief, no rose without a thorn). Venus and Adonis and Venus and Cupid are depicted in vignettes enclosed by the elaborate Rococo frame.
Faience tea trays were immune to the heat of the spirit lamp and to spills of hot water and milk. Relatively few ceramic tea trays have survived. They were often set into the recessed top of plain occasional tables.
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