Modra majolica starts as raw earthenware dipped in an opaque white tin glaze. That milky surface is the page. Everything else — cobalt tulips, antimony-yellow hearts, copper-green leaf sprays, manganese contour lines — is painted onto it by hand before the second firing, one piece at a time.

The town's name is the Slovak word for blue, and blue does most of the talking. A plate composes from the rim inward: concentric bands, then a bouquet, then a year brushed on the belly in the potter's own hand. Nothing repeats exactly, because nothing was printed.