Artist Palette with Paints Limoges Box by Rochard

A painter's palette, dotted with dabs of color and ready for the next canvas, is the shape of this little Rochard box. It is hand-painted porcelain from Limoges, France, a fitting subject for a craft that lives by the brush.

Every Color on the Board

There is a pleasing twist here, since the palette itself was painted by hand. Rochard artists added each spot of paint one at a time, so the porcelain mixing board looks as if an artist just stepped away from the easel. Small variations from piece to piece are part of that handwork.

A Studio Companion

• A Rochard design, painted by hand in Limoges, France
• Belongs in a fine art, painting or creative hobby grouping
• Looks right beside easel, brush and artist themed boxes

Fired in the Kilns of Limoges

Porcelain production in Limoges began in the late 1700s, after deposits of kaolin, a fine white clay, turned up near Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche in 1768. Boxes like this one are still painted after the white porcelain has been fired, with the metal mounts set by hand. Give it to a watercolor student finishing a first class, an art teacher at the end of the school year, or a painter celebrating a first gallery show, and let it sit on a studio ledge.