Many housewifes love dishes with onion pattern in beautiful white and blue shades. Many collect them, and many manufacturers of porcelain even make an extra note to the brand "onion pattern" or "real onion" pattern. Initially, this pattern was called "pomegranate". So why has pomegranate become an onion?

The name of this pattern "onion" was given to it due to an error. In fact, there was no onion. Indeed, look closely, you cannot see any onions there!

Here's the thing: this recognizable white-and-blue decor was invented almost 300 years ago by a German artist Kretchmar for the Meissen factory. The idea was based on oriental motifs: white and blue theme in the decor tributed to China (or rather the white and blue dishes of The Ming Dynasty), from where porcelain came to Europe. Floral motifs in the pattern are classic European theme. The artist showed imagination and decided to combine these two directions, so there were exotic white and blue pomegranates in his style, and some models of porcelain had pomegranates and peaches. Pomegranates were considered a symbol of a healthy family, so they were chosen as an accent of the new collection.

However, the public saw in the patterns quite different fruits, as pomegranate was just not a familiar fruit to the public. Someone saw exotic flowers, some watermelons and lemons, but most agreed that it was an onion. So to pomegranate pattern by Kretchmar was called onion pattern, it had become a usual thing in 100 years, so many porcelain companies in Germany, producing dishes with this pattern adding the mark "onion pattern", do not remember about pomegranates.