Delft Tile Serving Tray

The Dutch painted their own low, watery country onto everything they made, and the windmill by the water was a picture they came back to again and again, turning up in blue and white on plate after plate and tile after tile. Found in Belgium, it is a single hand-painted tile of exactly that scene, a windmill and a cluster of cottages on the far bank while a sailboat crosses the water, set into a metal tray with a raised edge and two shaped handles. A picture tile like this was mounted in a handled frame to turn it into something you could carry, a small painting that came to the table with the tea things on it. Sylvie keeps it on a dresser with a few scent bottles standing on it, so they gather on a little Dutch harbor instead of bare wood.