• Vista Alegre Villa rectangular porcelain serving dish in cobalt blue and white, overhead view, rope tassels and corner scrolls on a white background.
  • Vista Alegre Villa porcelain dish in side profile, showing the flared white sides, shallow well and cobalt rope border.
  • Close-up of the Vista Alegre Villa dish well, with paired cobalt tassels, rope rings and blue scrollwork on glossy white porcelain.
  • Underside of the Vista Alegre Villa dish showing the green crown VA 1824 Portugal mark and circular VILLA backstamp.
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Vista Alegre

Vista Alegre Porcelain Dish | Villa Pattern

Vista Alegre Porcelain Dish | Villa Pattern

R 1,650.00 ZAR
R 1,650.00 ZAR
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A small rectangular dish from Vista Alegre’s discontinued Villa pattern: cobalt rope, hanging tassels and scrolled corners on a clear white ground. Made in Ílhavo, Portugal, in the late twentieth century, it has the graphic clarity of classic blue-and-white without the fuss of an earlier service.

The well is generous for the size — jewellery, soap, keys, or a few petits fours — and the flared sides give it a quiet architectural presence on a dressing table or sideboard.

Dimensions

- Length: 19 cm
- Width: 15.2 cm
- Height: 3.5 cm

Condition

Excellent — Structurally sound, with no chips, cracks, staining or restoration. The four corners and the foot rim are clean.

Body / Structure
- The dish is square-cornered and shallow, with flared sides. - It sits true. No warping, no hairlines through the body, and no restoration.

Glaze / Surface
- The glaze is even, glossy and continuous across the well, the inner walls and the outer sides.
- No crazing, no glaze pops and no dull patches.

Decoration
- The cobalt rope, tassels, rings and corner scrolls are crisp and fully fired.
- There is no rubbing, fading or smudging of the blue.
- The inner rope frame around the well is complete.

Rim / Edges
- The painted rope line around the outer rim is continuous.
- The four corners and the long edges are clean — no chips or fleabites.

Interior / Well
- The white well is unmarked.
- No scratches, no staining and no pinholes.

Base / Foot / Backstamp
- The reverse is clean and white.
- The two green Vista Alegre marks (crown VA 1824 / Vista Alegre Portugal, and the circular VILLA stamp) are sharp and undisturbed.
- The foot rim is intact, with only the lightest handling wear consistent with age.

Additional Information

1. Design & Features
- Twisted-rope borders frame the rim and the inner well; paired tassels hang from knotted heads on the short sides; ring motifs sit on the long sides; and acanthus-style scrolls fill the corners against a deep cobalt ground.
- The centre is left plain, which is what makes the piece so useful.

2. Craftsmanship
- Hard-paste porcelain from the Vista Alegre factory at Ílhavo, underglaze cobalt with a clear glaze.
- The dual green factory marks on the reverse include the crown VA 1824 monogram and a circular stamp naming the pattern VILLA.

3. About the Maker
- Vista Alegre was founded in 1824 by José Ferreira Pinto Basto and received the title of Real Fábrica five years later — hence the crown that still sits above the VA monogram.
- It is the oldest porcelain factory on the Iberian Peninsula and remains in production.
- Villa was made from about 1994 to 2003 and then withdrawn, so pieces now come only from the secondary market.

4. Uses & Versatility
- Dressing table or bathroom tray, catchall for a hall table, soap dish, or a small serving piece for sweets and canapés.
- It sits comfortably with other blue-and-white, and with creamware and linen.

5. Care Instructions
- Hand-wash in warm water with a mild detergent.
- Avoid scouring pads and sudden temperature changes.
- Although later Vista Alegre is often dishwasher-safe on a gentle cycle, hand-washing is kinder to the cobalt and the sharp corners.

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