Antique Portuguese faience ashtray or small bowl by F. Gomes d’Avellar, Caldas da Rainha, hand-painted and modelled in the naturalist Palissy manner. The piece features a textured rocky base with a coiled snake in relief, holding a suspended scallop shell-shaped bowl above it.
The shell is decorated in warm ochre, brown and cream tones, contrasting beautifully with the mottled green and grey glazes of the base and serpent. A striking and unusual 19th-century Portuguese ceramic object, full of character and sculptural movement.
Marked to the underside with an impressed oval mark: F. Gomes d’Avellar / Caldas da Rainha. From an old Portuguese manor house.
Condition: antique condition with age-related wear, glaze irregularities and one broken corner to the shell, visible in the photographs. Recommended as a decorative collector’s piece.
Dimensions: 11 cm long x 11 cm wide x 8 cm high
Weight: 0.146 kg
