Herend Poisson Large Fish Platter with Strainer Inserts, Pair, Rare Blue-Gray Red and Gold Colorway, Hungarian Porcelain

At the grand tables of 19th-century Europe, the fish course had its own dedicated service, down to long platters fitted with pierced drainers that lifted a poached fish clear of its juices. This impressive Herend platter carries that tradition forward, complete with its two-piece strainer. Stretching nearly two feet long, it is decorated in Herend's Poisson pattern, which draws on the fish motifs of Chinese porcelain, here rendered in a rare combination of black outlines, red, and gilt on a blue-gray ground. Made at Herend in in the early 1940s, as war closed in around Hungary, and later passed down through the estate of U.S. Ambassador James C. H. Bonbright, who was serving as an American diplomat in Budapest in those very years and whose diplomatic career spanned Budapest, Lisbon, and Stockholm, they are commanding centerpieces with a remarkable backstory.

Dimensions: 23.75" L x 9" W