Lot 14

HABAN PLATE

Habánská, also called New Christian, faience occupies an important position in the development of ceramic art in many European countries. It has also become a well-known term in the field of art history and collecting. The makers of this pottery, after whom it is named, were members of the New Baptist religious movement. Later, members of this movement were called habans. A legitimate feature of the floral decoration of the Moravian New Baptist faience was its clear independence from real natural shapes.This narrow thematic definition, based on the Bible, was determined by the principles of the New Baptist communities. They were forbidden to depict the form of living creatures, whether human or animal. This prohibition was apparently strictly observed, because none of the surviving faience from the earliest period (1590-1622) features the otherwise popular figural subjects of the time. A very important source of new stimuli for the decoration of the New Baptist faience was the blue-decorated faience from Delft in the second half of the 17th century, which includes the offered plate painted in cobalt blue with floral motifs surrounding the architecture of folk and religious buildings. Very good condition.