In or Out

It’s so amazing the way our eyes can deceive us. We can look at something from one angle and it looks one way, but when we cock our head, the vision changes and we see another picture entirely.

I bought a set of plates over the weekend. I am quite taken with china of all sorts, especially late 1800’s transfer-ware. And lately, I’ve been drawn to brown and white transfer-ware and have acquired several pieces of it.

These two pieces are from Wedgwood Anniversary productions of Catherine the Great’s famous “Green Frog” service, which comprised 1244 pieces of china, each with a different view of a place in England! Each also had a green frog, signifying the marsh upon which Catherine built a summer palace.

But I digress… this is about some china I bought this weekend from my friends at Halcyon House Antiques. It’s great-looking china, marked Wedgwood, as well as another mark. But that’s not what intrigued me. It’s the border of the plates. Look at the scalloped edges… are they concave or convex? As your my eye travels around the edge of the plate, some of the scalloped edges look like they’re raised, and others look like they’re depressed. And then I look again, and it’s different. And of course, as you look around the edge of the plate, you realize that the pattern’s the same all over! It’s just that your eyes are playing tricks on you and you’re seeing it differently.

Which do you see? Concave or convex?

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