Mancer Italian Majolica Asparagus Bundle Covered Tureen

There is a specific kind of dinner party magic that happens when you set a tureen on the table and guests reach for it before you've said a word. This is that tureen. Modeled as a bound bundle of asparagus — dozens of tightly ranked spears rising to a domed crown of clustered green-and-burgundy tips — it reads as a still life in three dimensions. A single curved stalk arches across the lid as the handle. A bright orange ribbon wraps the body in trompe l'oeil, pulling into a raised knot at the front as though someone just tied it off in the kitchen. The stalks transition from deep, glossy olive-green at the tips to pale cream at the cut ends, every surface incised with the texture of the real thing.

The base carries the full Mancer maker's stamp, "MADE IN ITALY / MEISELMAN IMPORTS," and mold number K2553. Meiselman Imports was a mid-century American firm that brought Italian figural majolica into U.S. homes from the 1950s through the 1970s, and Mancer was among the Italian studios whose work they championed. The asparagus bundle tureen traces a lineage back to 18th-century French faïence, when aristocratic tables competed to outdo each other with naturalistic vegetable services — Mancer's postwar version brought that same wit and craft within reach of anyone who knew where to look. At the table, it works. On a shelf, it works. It is the rare functional object that earns its space either way.

CONDITION

Excellent. Glaze is bright and fully intact; modeled surface detail is crisp throughout. No chips, cracks, or repairs noted.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall: 8½" H × 10½" W
• Maker: Mancer, Italy
• Importer: Meiselman Imports
• Mold No.: K2553
• Campbell's Soup Can (4" H) Shown for Scale — Not Included