Basket of Brown Eggs Retired Limoges Box

A woven basket piled with warm brown eggs brings the morning hen house indoors, rendered small enough to rest in one hand. This is a hand-painted porcelain Limoges box made in Limoges, France, and it is a retired design.

Fresh From the Henhouse

Brown eggs have a homey, country feel that white ones never quite match, and the painter leaned into that here. The eggs sit snug in their basket, and the whole arrangement reads like a farm stand at sunrise. Because the design is no longer in production, it tends to turn up only now and then.

Gathering a Country Kitchen

• A retired design, painted by hand in Limoges, France
• Belongs beside rooster, hen and farmhouse kitchen pieces
• Rounds out a breakfast table or Easter morning grouping

Sunny Side Up Display

Set it on a kitchen hutch shelf, a bread board by the window or a farmhouse sideboard. It suits the friend who keeps backyard chickens, the baker who goes through a dozen eggs a week, or anyone who loves a slow Sunday breakfast. At Easter it slips easily among bunnies and spring flowers.

A Habit Born in France

Small porcelain boxes first caught on in 18th-century France, where they held snuff, pills and beauty patches. Limoges pieces like this one carry that old idea forward with everyday subjects from the kitchen and garden.