Basket of eggs

Hello.

Does anyone have any ideas about the origins of this decorative basket of eggs? The "basket" is obviously ceramic, but so are the very realistically modelled eggs.

I have seen this kind of item before, but usually with piles of lemons or flowers, from Spain, Portugal, even the UK, but those ornamental pieces are usually larger, with glossy glaze and less finely modelled.  It could be any age although there is enough wear on the bottom to suggest it isn't brand new.  Something about it suggests the 30's to me, or maybe Edwardian, but I am only guessing.

The eggs are life size, and the whole dish is about 9" by 7".

There are no marks at all.

Could they just be ceramic eggs that are used to encourage hens to lay, which someone has put into a basket?
Ceramic eggs for hens have been used for ages and are still fairly mass produced and cheap.

Here is a picture of the base, with some wear but no marks at all.

The eggs look as though they are loose in the basket, but they are fixed and definitely part of the construction.  The glaze of the eggs is fused together where they touch, and also to the surface of the basket.

Are you sure it's glaze and not some sort of glue sticking them together?
Hard to tell from just the photo, but it looks like whatever is joining them is also separating them.
If it was glaze, I wouldn't expect it to be pushing the eggs apart and look so regular.

I could be wrong (from just a photo), but that looks more like glue to me.

Hello Celtic_Fan,

I can see why you would think it might be glue, but I have had a really good scrape about with a scalpel and a magnifying glass and it is definitely glaze. In real life it's more obviously part of the original construction, but it's too difficult to take a good enough image.

I have seen the dummy eggs farmers use to encourage their chickens to lay, and these eggs do indeed look very similar.

It's a puzzling object, thank you for taking an interest.

OK.
Sometimes being able to rule some things out, is a useful part of arriving at the final destination.

Not sure why I'm thinking it could be French.