Antique Cutting Board - III

Found in a small village outside Lyon, this antique French cutting board was hand-carved from a single thick piece of wood, a tall rectangle with a round peg of a handle rising from the top. Boards shaped like this lived in the kitchens of the Lyonnais countryside, used for everything that needed a flat surface, from bread to onions to whatever came in from the garden. What sets this one apart is its patina, a rare silvered grey grown over decades of scrubbing and weather, the grain frosted and mottled in a way you almost never find and could never fake. Sylvie leans it against the wall behind a bowl of grapes, or lays it flat with a round of cheese and a small knife on top.