Saint Uze Poêlon

Butter melted in a pot like this and poured out still warm, straight onto whatever was waiting. Found in Béziers, it holds a pouring spout and a single hollow handle that once took a wooden grip, glazed cream and trailed with a vine of blue flowers. The French call it a poêlon, a little stoveside saucepan for melting butter or warming a sauce, this one made in Saint-Uze, the Drôme pottery town known for its blue-flowered stoneware. Sylvie would keep it out for salt or olive oil, or set a few short stems in it on a kitchen shelf.