For the hour before dinner

Peanut Bowls

A peanut bowl is the one piece in the room that guests are invited to touch. It goes round with the drinks, holds a handful of cashews or olives, and comes back a little lighter every time.

These come from Love Art Ceramic and Senzo Duma Ceramics, sculpted as the animal itself, a leopard crouched under the bowl, a whale with its back hollowed out, a hornbill with its wings spread round the rim, and painted inside so the picture appears as the bowl empties. Between parties they hold rings on a dressing table or keys by the door.