Faience egg dishes as table decoration in the 18th century in southern European museums

The New Year holidays are coming, and the fussy are preparing to wrinkle their noses at festive suppers of egg and mayonnaise salads. Quite wrongly. In the early modern period eggs were so important an element of the feast that in the 18th century the table was adorned with a faience dish of eggs. I have shown similar dishes with sliced egg before; they are to be found in many museums of southern Europe, which confirms the popularity of this kind of table decoration. It was not always possible to boil a dozen hen's eggs for every dinner, eggs so tasty, nourishing and costly, but nothing displayed abundance more simply and plainly, unless it was a rich assortment of spices