Tray
Manufactory Lunéville French
Not on view
The trompe l’oeil motif of a print attached to wood planking by nails or sealing wax became so popular that during the second half of the eighteenth century many factories imitated it on tableware. Typically, the miniature faux prints depict landscapes with buildings and tiny figures; delicately executed cast shadows make the paper appear to lift. Sometimes the painter signed the print or, as with the plate here, inscribed it with the date and factory name. Whether a different painter would have been employed to execute the pine background remains an open question.
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