Decorative plates,
when the dishes are exposed

An essential everyday object, the plate has not always been the practical object that finds its place on every table today. A centerpiece of tableware, large, small, for dessert or fish, the plate has long been a sign of wealth. Crafted from noble and delicate materials, earthenware, porcelain, silver and even gold, the plate offered artists a choice medium to express their art. Picasso, Lurçat and even Cocteau painted plates that today command high prices and are exhibited like masterpieces.

Vintage plates are also making a comeback on our walls and in our dressers. To showcase them safely, La Bulle offers standard or custom presentation solutions.

In the Middle Ages, the plate referred not to the utensil but to the series of dishes that would be served during the meal. People ate on trenchers, a kind of cutting board, some of which already had raised edges, foreshadowing the definitive form of the plates we know. They would appear in Europe among kings and nobles before becoming more widespread. Now made of earthenware and porcelain, they were decorated with the coats of arms and crests of the great aristocratic families or even with scenes telling us about the customs of the time. Tableware became a sign of wealth as soon as one could afford different sets of dishes depending on the dishes one was going to eat. Metal and silver sets disappeared during the reign of Louis XIV, who had them melted down to finance his armies, and porcelain became the most frequently used material in their design. With the technical progress of the 18th century, tableware benefited from the industrialization of its production and finally found its place in every home.

In addition to its practical aspect, the dresser is also a showcase behind which one can display one's finest pieces. The ornate plates will find their place there and allow the staging of the entire service on which often unfolds a veritable fresco. Here again, dressers primarily occupy the kitchens and living rooms of kings and queens, the number of floors they had going hand in hand with their rank in society. If the sovereign's had five floors, the knight's had no more than two and we do not yet speak of a dresser but of a dresser.

In the 18th century, nobles and bourgeois, to display their plates and turn them into de facto works of art, were looking for furniture combining the advantages of storage and display. The first dressers appeared and legitimized the decorative aspect of tableware in general and plates in particular. (but also services, fish dishes, serving dishes, etc.)