Tureen in the context of Porcelain

The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose aim is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. This includes most of the objects for the interiors of buildings, as well as interior design, but typically excludes architecture. Ceramic art, metalwork, furniture, jewellery, fashion, various forms of the textile arts and glassware are major groupings.

Applied arts largely overlap with the decorative arts, and in modern parlance they are both often placed under the umbrella category of design. The decorative arts are often categorized in distinction to the "fine arts", namely painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale sculpture, which generally produce objects solely for their aesthetic quality and capacity to stimulate the intellect.

Le Nove porcelain was made in the 18th century in the town now called Nove, near Bassano, then in the Republic of Venice's mainland territories, the terrafirma. It was made at a factory owned by Pasquale Antonibon, who was already making fine maiolica in fashionable styles, which continued to be made alongside the porcelain. Production of porcelain began in 1762 and ended when Antonibon died in 1773. But it resumed in 1781, when Francisco Parolin (or Parolini) leased the factory for twenty years in a partnership with the Antonibons, known as the "Parolin period". This lasted until 1802. Production of porcelain continued intermittently until 1835.

Initially soft-paste porcelain was made, but some hard-paste porcelain from about 1765, though soft-paste pieces are still assigned dates after this. Some of the factory's products are also classified as terraglia, the Italian version of Staffordshire creamware, a fine earthenware. The production was generally similar to that of the Cozzi porcelain factory in Venice itself, and used the same clays, so it can be difficult to distinguish between the two.

Hollowware or holloware is tableware that forms a vessel or container of some kind, as opposed to flatware such as plates. Examples include sugar bowls, creamers, coffee pots, teapots, soup tureens, hot food covers, and jugs. It may be in pottery, metals such as silver, iron, glass or plastic. It does not include cutlery or other metal utensils. Hollowware is constructed for durability. It differs from some other silver-plated items, with thicker walls and more layers of silver plating.

A punch bowl or punchbowl is a bowl, often large and wide, for serving mixed drinks such as hippocras, punch or mulled wine, with a ladle. A monteith (seau crennelé in French) is a similar bowl, usually of silver or pottery, scalloped around the edge. It was mainly a wine cooler, designed for cooling glasses in icy water, the feet of the glasses held in the notches, but could be used as a punchbowl. Monteiths appear in Britain around 1680, and were popular until the 1720s or so.

Very large examples, like the Jerningham wine cooler, are usually called a wine cistern. These were more often used as wine coolers, for cooling wine bottles with icy water, but for a large party might be used as punchbowls. Tureens normally used for soup or other food might also be used.