antique French Gien faience pottery plate black transferware 1859 military scene number 10

Antique French faience pottery plate (Gien mark from sometime between 1860 and the late 1870s).

This is black transfer ware, a military scene from the Italian campaign of the French Emperor Napoleon III period. Beautifully detailed!

This plate depicts the Passage du Mincio par les Troupee de la Division Vinoy (troops as titled, I'm not up on historic battles period, and even Google had a hard time with this one!). Soldiers are two to a horse.

Plate measures 8" in diameter, and is in very good condition without damage, amazing for a piece of this age. These plates are hard to find even in France, so I was delighted to find a number of these with different scenes. See our other pieces of Gien for more of them.