Set of ten ocher dinner plates

"I always liked the ochre," Patricia recalls of these dinner plates. This set of ten comes from a potter based in Apt, the Provençal town long known for its faience tradition, whose work Patricia and Walter first discovered at a flea market and returned to again and again over the years. The plates are glazed in a warm, sustained ochre — the colour of late afternoon sun on limestone — with a gently scalloped rim that gives each piece its handmade character. The glaze is smooth and even, the form substantial without being heavy. Stacked, they have the satisfying presence of pottery made to be used. Patricia explains that the pottery studio was very much a family enterprise: the atelier was part of the house, with the mother and grandmother living there, and she and Walter used to visit regularly, even bringing their cooking students to watch the work being made. The family produced everything from cups and saucers to decorative pieces, and Patricia accumulated a great many of them over the years. The pottery-making tradition has since passed out of the family's hands — the tools were eventually sold to another woman in Apt — but the work endures. These are generous dinner-sized plates that would sit beautifully on a table set for a long lunch, paired with linen, good bread and whatever is best at the market.