Get the Look: Provencal, March 2008: 2000s Archive : gourmet.com

London potter Daniel Smith loves working in multiples. These hand-thrown porcelain bowls are from a nesting set of six, ideal for showcasing multiple culinary feats, yet requiring little storage space. Match’s Sofia pewter carving set is handmade in Italy and shares with Smith’s work an honest simplicity (bowls, $520 for 6, 212-414-4332, ochre.net; carving set, $240, tabulatua.com).

The charm of the handmade is evident in these vessels. Alice Goldsmith’s shallow Hammered Porcelain bowls are crafted in New York, while the Artisan Wood Vases are carved in Mozambique from blocks of craggy wood (bowls, $44, materialpossessions.com; vases, $18, $28, and $38, anthropologie.com).

This hand-thrown ceramic bowl by Daniel Smith somehow manages to be both austere and opulent. It’s sure to steal the scene at the table, no matter what you serve within it ($420, 212-414-4332, ochre.net).

Emile Henry began producing oval gratin dishes in 1850, and the company still uses the same high-fired Burgundy clay and the same methods it did back then. Though Henry Dean’s glassware is so today he, too, makes use of primitive techniques: The glass itself is handmade, then formed into shape on wooden molds (Gratin dish, $31.95, cooking.com; glasses, $35, 212-414-4332, ochre.net).

This sweet little Japanese ceramic teapot is called Eggplant, though its color and shape remind us more of something from the sea ($95, www.aerostudios.com).

Heath’s Coupe salad and dinner plates have a certain earthy quality, yet they pair nicely with the sophisticated city looks of Christofle’s sterling-silver Malmaison flatware and Barneys New York Crossweave linen napkins (Heath plates, $26 and $32, napkin, $28, 888-8-Barney, barneys.com; flatware, $413 for 5-piece place setting, www.christofle.com).

Use these blue-capped bottles in your pantry for flavored vinegars and infused oils or, better still, put them to work on your table serving wine and water. Complete the color scheme with these stackable glass tumblers from Nouvel Studio, which do double duty as highball glasses (bottles, $24.95 for 4, surlatable.com; tumblers, $18 each, lolahome.com).

The shapes of Christiane Perrochon’s pottery are always spare and simple—it’s the glazes that make them memorable. Perrochon brushes them on so they land unevenly, resulting in a play of color, as in this splendid platter ($295, 212-350-0100, takashimaya-ny.com).

Whether you’re a novice or a professional pastry chef, your creations will look like winners when you serve them on Sur La Table’s porcelain cake stand ($24.95, surlatable.com).

Match’s pewter-and-glass salt and pepper shakers have a regal air, so they’re an interesting foil to the homespun quality of the Transylvania Images placemat, hand-woven from vintage Eastern European textiles (Shaker set, $183, 773-525-3500, tabulatua.com; placemat, $25, 212-414-4332, ochre.net).

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