La Douairière Paper Party Plate (Pack of 8)

An old woman in a lace bonnet and oval spectacles, a pale shawl gathered at her shoulders, gazes out of a decayed 19th-century daguerreotype with the patience of the very old. Dignified and a little forbidding, she reads as a dowager recovered from a haunted parlor rather than costume-shop kitsch. Available in 9″ dinner and 7″ salad or dessert sizes.

The Design

The portrait belongs to the earliest age of photography, when a sitter held still for minutes and the finished daguerreotype was a one-of-a-kind silver mirror. Scratches rain across the plate and the silver has begun to cloud, but the Douairière holds her place — bonnet, spectacles, and folded shawl set against an aged ivory ground with a fine dark rim, the grandmother the house cannot quite let go.

The Object

Printed in full color on durable, food-safe paper, in a 9″ dinner size and a 7″ salad or dessert size, sold in packs of eight. Sit her with La Comtesse, Le Docteur, and Le Colonel for a full séance of a table, or against the solid Les Classiques plates for a calmer setting.