Large 20th Century Pique Assiette Table Lamp

20th Century example of pique assiette on a large antique pottery oil or water jar.

Rewired and PAT tested to UK standards.

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.