Catalonia Water Vessel

Found in Montpellier but originally Catalan, this 19th-century Spanish water jar is barro negro, the black clay pottery of Verdú, a village that has fired it the same way since the 16th century. The colour comes from the firing rather than any glaze, the clay smoked in a low-oxygen wood fire so the black rises up out of the kiln instead of being painted on. Vessels like this lived in Catalan farmhouse kitchens as the household water jar, the porous clay sweating just enough to keep the water cool through a long Spanish summer. Sylvie sets it on the counter with a long handful of olive branches, or leaves it empty on a shelf where the shape carries the room on its own.

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