On the decorative eccentricity of the 1990s British kitchen

Where tomatoes ripen on the windowsill beside unread copies of House & Garden, and someone is always returning from the market with too many cherries and a bunch of parsley wrapped in brown paper. These pieces belong to that lineage — the deeply domestic glamour of produce-shaped ceramics, somewhere between vintage Italian tableware, early Martha Stewart, and the kind of Country Living house with copper pans no one is allowed to touch.

There is also something very English underpinning the appeal — echoes of late-’80s and early-’90s decorating culture, when trompe l’oeil fruit and vegetable motifs appeared everywhere from Bordallo Pinheiro serving ware to hand-painted ceramics sold through Liberty and Conran Shop catalogues. It recalls the era of Terence Conran entertaining guides, Laura Ashley kitchens with sponge-painted walls, and the particular sort of aspirational domesticity that filled the pages of World of Interiors and The Sunday Times Style magazine. Decorative, slightly theatrical, and entirely sincere.

Produced by a family-run workshop in Nove, Italy — the historic town long referred to as the City of Ceramics — the Fennel Sauce Bowl, Artichoke Sauce Bowl, and Foglia serving pieces continue our ongoing CSA-esque collection of produce-minded tableware. For centuries, Nove has been associated with highly decorative domestic ceramics, particularly the kind that blur the line between utility and ornament, and these pieces sit comfortably within that tradition.

Long celebrated for imaginative reinterpretations of traditional homewares, the workshop approaches each form with warmth, humor, and a slightly exaggerated realism — artichokes unfurl dramatically, fennel bulbs swell generously, leaves curl softly at the edges. Using clay and kaolin sourced from the Brenta River in northern Italy, every piece is shaped and fired using techniques passed down through generations, including a century-old wood-fired furnace still in operation today.