Recettes de Cuisine Recipe Book Limoges Box

A French cookbook titled Recettes de Cuisine, the kind kept close to the stove and stained with years of happy cooking, inspired this porcelain box. Its cover and pages were painted by hand in Limoges, France, as a Limoges box.

Straight From a French Kitchen

Recettes de cuisine simply means kitchen recipes, and the phrase brings to mind handwritten cards, splattered pages and the classic dishes of French home cooking. From coq au vin to tarte tatin, these are the recipes passed between generations. This little book honors every cook who learned by feel rather than by measuring cup.

On the Cook's Shelf

• Hand-painted porcelain made in Limoges, France
• Suits a cookbook, kitchen or French cuisine collection
• Pairs with rolling pin, teapot and tart pieces

Bon Appetit Occasions

Give it to a friend heading off to cooking school in Paris, a mother who keeps the family recipes, or a host who loves French food. It looks charming on a kitchen windowsill or a shelf beside real cookbooks.

Shaped From Limousin Clay

Limoges porcelain owes its start to kaolin, a pure white clay found near Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche in 1768. Fired at very high heat, it becomes the hard-paste porcelain that painters then decorate by hand.