19th Century Picassiette Barrel

Lovely example of a early 20th Century Picassiette, on a small decorative barrel.

Pique assiette or trencadis is a style of mosaic that incorporates ceramic shards, broken dishes and other found objects into a design. While traditional mosaics used small cubes that were relatively uniformly shaped, pique assiette or trencadis tends to use nonuniform pieces.

The term pique assiette has a French origin. Some say it translates to “stolen plate” or “broken plate”. It also refers to someone who is a “scrounger” which of course fits because most pique assiette art is created with recycled or scavenged materials. Trencadis is a Catalan term that means “chopped” or “breakable”.

There is a long tradition of using broken and discarded materials to create folk art.

Rewired and PAT tested to UK standards.