Plate, from the incomplete Dinner Service with the “Ostrich” Pattern

The service is incomplete; only six dinner plates, two soup plates and two bowls remain.
The decoration, based on Japanese models, is known to antiquarians as the “ostrich pattern”. It was one of the most widely used in Milanese manufactories: the bird is represented on a meadow, surrounded by a weeping willow, a butterfly and Oriental flowers. Actually the bird is a “Ho”, a heron or stork, an ancient symbol of prosperity and longevity. It is always accompanied by the stylized rock with a willow, originally a symbol of the Taoist island, a kind of earthly paradise, and by the lotus flower, a Buddhist emblem and a symbol of summer.