Italian Ligurian calligrafico nauralistico tin-glazed ware dish with a canine design.

This style, derived from Wanli-period Chinese porcelain (or Persian copies) and Calligrafico a volute C Ligurian decorative style, was first made, to judge from the makers’ marks, in the first half of the 17th century in Albisola and Savona, Liguria. The decoration covers much of the surface. Panels enclosing floral motifs were painted on dish rims, whereas in the centre rounded rocks, vegetation, long-limbed fauna and buildings, especially stylized Chinese pagodas, could be depicted. At first they were made in berettino (blue on light blue) and blue-on-white; on the later polychrome-on-white the designs are outlined in purple. The earliest date painted on a calligrafico nauralistico vessel is 1619.

Two examples in the berettino palette were recovered from Narrow Street. The centre of a fragmentary dish has a canine on its hind legs set in a lush landscape, but the atypical series of floral roundels and lozenges (the qian motif?) on the flange may be oriental in origin. A band of closely spaced diagonal lines adorns the outer wall. It is possible that this vessel belongs to the earlier Calligrafico a volute C style rather than that of calligrafico nauralistico. The rim diameter of this dish is 226mm.