Every good evening has a moment just before dinner when the drinks are poured and nobody has sat down yet. Something goes round in that moment: a handful of cashews, a few olives, salted almonds. The bowl that carries them is passed from hand to hand more than anything else in the room, which is exactly why it deserves to be beautiful.
The animal is the handle
The peanut bowls made by Love Art Ceramic and Senzo Duma Ceramics in South Africa start from the animal. A leopard crouches under its bowl, a whale carries one in its hollowed back, a hornbill spreads its wings round the rim, a mongoose sits up on its haunches holding one. You pick it up by the animal, and it sits in one hand the way a good glass does.
Leopard peanut bowl
Sculpted by Motsamai Sello, painted by Swelihle Khanyeza
$595
Whale peanut bowl
Love Art Ceramic
$595
Hornbil Peanut Bowl
Love Art Ceramic
$595
A picture at the bottom
Inside, the painters leave something to find. In the leopard it is a red flower in a ring of green leaves, hidden under the first handful of nuts and showing a little more each time the bowl goes round. By the end of the evening the picture is all that is left.
Between parties
A peanut bowl does not have to wait for guests. On a dressing table it holds rings and earrings; by the front door, keys; on a desk, the paper clips nobody else is allowed to use. It is one of the few pieces in a collection that earns its place every single day.
Mongoose Peanut Bowl
Sculpted by Phomtso Mafura, painted by Gugu Mdladla
$695
Wild Dog Peanut Bowl
Senzo Duma Ceramics
$695