18th c. Cul Noir Plate

Turn this plate over and the back is glazed almost black, the mark of the faience the French call cul noir. Found in Avignon and made in the 19th century, it carries a basket of flowers painted by hand in cobalt at its center, framed by a lattice border, with a shaped rim and a long crack that has been part of its face for years. Cul noir was the everyday faience of Normandy, its potters coating the underside in a dark manganese glaze that cost less than tin white and hid the wear of a working kitchen, saving the white for the side that showed. Sylvie hangs it on the kitchen wall among her other plates, the blue picking up the linens on the shelf below.

 

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