Dish from the Opium Poppy Series. Talavera de la Reina, 18th century.
Glazed ceramic.
Measurements: 25 cm. diameter.
Enamelled ceramic dish belonging to the Poppy Series, a plant represented on the seat with decoration in Talavera's characteristic cobalt blue on white. Of Muslim origin, Talavera de la Reina ceramics acquired industrial importance from the 16th century onwards. Mentioned by Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina, Talavera earthenware can also be documented in much of Spanish Baroque painting. Used by nobles and the humble, its commercial monopoly was in constant conflict with Sevillian earthenware. One of the architects of the recovery of Spanish Talavera ceramics was Juan Niveiro with the founding of the "El Carmen" factory; the incorporation of workers brought from Manises meant another important change in its decorative series. Changes that would reinforce the tricolour series produced by another emerging pottery factory in the mid-19th century: "La Menora". The earthenware and tiles produced in Talavera de la Reina (Castilla La Mancha, Spain) throughout its five centuries of recognised ceramic tradition have generated such a rich and varied typology that a classification into series proposed since the end of the 19th century by different specialists has been necessary in order to facilitate their study and cataloguing.