Ever since potters began to decorate their works, there has been a
market for display items, as well as items that could be used.  I think the most beautiful pieces being,  large shallow dishes or Charger's which would have been hung up on a wall or placed on a sideboard or maybe a table.

The technique of tin glazing earthenware came to Europe  with the Moorish invasion of Spain in the 8th and 12th centuries, it then spread to Italy where it was called majolica.  From the late 15th century,  potters in Italy produced majolica dishes decorated in blue, green, ochre  and manganese, many notably from Urbino, are lavishly painted in the istoriato, or story telling style, with rim to rim scenes from mythology or the bible.

Meanwhile in the mid 16th Century France, Bernard Palissy was working with coloured lead glazes to produce relief moulded dishes, which entailed fruit, reptiles and insects, these pieces are very rare.

However, a number of Portuguese factories copied the style in the late 19th century, and these Palissy style pieces can be bought for a few hundred pounds.  In and around the 17th century, tin glazed chargers had become popular right across Europe, mainly through the Dutch potters of Delft.

The Dutch used both European and Oriental designs, some European designed closely related to Chinese Kraak chargers and could almost be mistaken for Ming imports the only difference could be that they where made from earthenware and not porcelain.

British 17th century, tin glazed delft chargers were displayed along side pewter, and their topics where of Adam and Eve to Royal commemorative ware.   In the second half of the 17th century  English slipware potters such as Thomas and Ralph Toft, William Taylor and Ralph Simpson started to make fantastic chargers with free hand designs in slip, these were of birds,  animals and Royalty.  It was soon after 1700 the process was speeded up by the use of press moulding designs that were filled with slip.

It was in the 19th century when in Britain, that hand made pottery was brought back,  this was a result of the Arts and Crafts movement.  Men  like William De Morgan produced decorative dishes, plaques and tiles in a variety of historic styles,  it was at this time also that Minton and Doulton set up art studios in London and were to make chargers and other wares.