Rotin & Fleurs Dessert Plate

Around the rim of Laclaux’s rotin & fleurs dessert plate, painted canes run in a double band, each node picked out in a darker line and the two lengths crossing at one point as if lashed together, a trompe-l’oeil of the rattan that recurs throughout the house’s furniture. Within this border, a single magnolia sits low and to one side, its petals shaded from white to rose against two deep green leaves, leaving most of the well clear for what is served. The hand painting on Limoges porcelain continues the work of the chambrelans, independent decorators who worked from their own rooms in the city during the nineteenth century. The plate stacks naturally on the larger pieces of the service, whose rims open into a fan of woven reeds, and suits a garden room, a terrace lunch or a summer table laid with linen and glass.