Pedestal Fruit Bowl

Some pieces let the shape do all the work, and this 1920s French pedestal fruit bowl is one of them. Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, it's a deep wide basin set on a turned pedestal foot, the ceramic left in a soft cream that's warmed to bone over the last century. Bowls like this came in painted, transferred, and gilded versions across the same period; the ones that came out of the kiln undecorated were the rarer order, and rarer still to survive intact. Sylvie sets it on the kitchen counter piled with summer tomatoes still warm from the garden, or on the dining table with a tumble of pears and figs.