Art Deco Silver Dish with P Monogram

"I love that people monogrammed things years ago," Patricia recalls. "I think of the person it belonged to and wonder — did they love it?" From their Paris apartment, this Art Deco silver-plate serving has a broad, shallow bowl is framed by a gently scalloped rim running the full perimeter with a band of pierced decoration — repeating stylized motifs cut cleanly through the metal in the restrained, architectural language of the 1920s and 1930s. At the center, engraved in ornate Gothic script, is a single letter: P. Today it would make a lovely vide poche, or simply sit on a sideboard and catch the light.