Set of Five French Porcelain Bistro Saucers from Paris

From Patricia and Walter Wells's Paris apartment, this set of five small porcelain bistro saucers is a precise and charming record of café life before the age of digital bills. In the days before printed receipts, French café waiters had their own elegant system of accounting: when a customer ordered — a coffee, a glass of wine, an apéritif — the waiter would place one of these small saucers on the table, printed with the price in francs. Order after order, the saucers would stack up, and at the end of the sitting, the total was right there in the pile. Change and tips were left in the same saucers.

Each of the five pieces comes from a different establishment, and the variety is part of their appeal. All are white porcelain, small enough to sit in the palm of your hand, and each carries its price in bold, confident typography — 1f25, 2f25, 3f50, 75 centimes, and 7 francs among them. The rims differ from saucer to saucer: one banded in gold, another in yellow with a graphic star motif at the centre, a third in pale blue, one with a scalloped edge and silver detailing.

Grouped together on a shelf, a windowsill, or a kitchen dresser, these five saucers make a graphic and genuinely historical display. They also work beautifully as ring dishes, salt cellars, or small condiment holders at the table — still useful, still charming, and carrying with them the whole atmosphere of the French café.