The French have a word for a little dish like this, the vide-poche, the empty-pocket, kept by the bed or the door to catch the rings, keys, and coins of the day. Found in Montpellier and made in the 1970s, these two are glazed a soft celery green edged in a brighter green at the rim, each with a shallow well at its center just the right size for a pair of earrings. The fine lines crazed across the glaze, what the French call craquelure, form as a piece cools after firing and the glaze shrinks at a different rate than the clay beneath, so no two ever crackle quite the same way. Sylvie keeps one on her dressing table for her rings and the other by the front door for keys. Sold as a set of two.
