Blue and White Lunéville Compotier

Set a few pears in it and the table is done. A compotier is a wide fruit bowl raised on a flared foot, made to lift fruit or compote up into view, and this one is printed with sprays of blue flowers around a gently waved rim and down the foot. The mark underneath reads K&G Lunéville with the pattern name Kléber: the mark of Keller & Guérin, who ran the faience works at Lunéville in Lorraine from 1832. We found it, with the two tureens and the sauce tureen from the same set, in a shop in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, in Provence. It dates from the 19th century. We would pile it with pears for display, or stand a fat church candle in the middle. Sold on its own.