Fête du Thé Buffet Paper Plate

The great French cabinet-makers of the 18th century understood that a piece of furniture was not complete until it had been placed in a room: set against the right wall covering, framed by the right textile, given the context that allowed its proportions and ornament to be properly read. The Les Meubles plates work on the same principle. Each plate presents a vintage Rococo furniture illustration at the center, in warm terracotta tones on a cream medallion ground, surrounded by a border drawn from the striped and floral wallpaper patterns of the same period. The furniture and its setting arrive together, as they were always intended to be seen.

The buffet illustrated here is among the most ambitious pieces in the Les Meubles series: a substantial case piece with doors, drawers, and the kind of carved ornament that signals a commission of consequence. In the vocabulary of French furniture, the buffet occupies the formal register — it was designed to be seen, to demonstrate the resources of the household, to anchor a room in the way that architectural furniture always has. Against the wallpaper border of the medallion ground, it reads with exactly the authority it was made to project.

The border is drawn from the striped wallpapers of the period: alternating bands with small repeating florals in the manner of the papier peint français. Part of the Fête du Thé collection. Pairs with the Les Meubles napkins for a complete place setting.