Asparagus Plate Views
Vintage StyleServing asparagus on plates decorated with bas-relief asparagus may seem redundant, but it harks back to eighteenth-century French trompe l'oeil. Paintings of fish on fish plates gave rise to oyster plates, artichoke plates and asparagus plates. Just like oysters, asparagus was a luxurious commodity deserving of its own dish, says Christina Prescott-Walker, director of European ceramics at Sotheby's. Adds John Loring, design director at Tiffany, In the nineteenth century--when the newly rich loved to have complicated table settings--the asparagus plate became the latest must-have service piece. Most antique asparagus plates available today are French majolica, like a nineteenth-century Lunéville plate, from James II Galleries in New York City (set of eight, $2,500; 212-355-7040).
Asparagus Plate Images
