Dining in Style, between the traditional and the contemporary
Claudia Pianetti della Stufa – photos by Susi Lensi Orlandi – Ed. Mandragora 2024
This table, on the family smallholding, conveys all the cheerfulness of the panoramic garden, open like a balcony in bloom over the city skyline. The playful tone is expressed in an informal combination of handmade crockery, wooden dishes la souvenir of a trip to South Africa), fanciful ceramics, 196os Valdarno green glassware, 1970s-style glass candlesticks and other colourful pieces.
The mise en place includes: an old French garden cutlery
service with bamboo handles; an antique English tea box used as a sugar bowl; large Provençal shabby chic garden candelabras; a teapot decorated with garden motifs by Brandimarte; two arrangements with pink Pierre de Ronsard roses branches of flowering Crataegus pyracantha, and Bengali roses, with all garden blooms collected in twin crystal vases; a Provençal
Anduze mignon vase, a few glass bowls and a large modern
three-tiered riser and an auspicious wooden frog as a napkin holder. Completing the coffee table: coffee cups with Richard Ginori rosettes, a floral porcelain tea service for herbal teas and hot chocolate and an English ceramic dish with a floral lid for sugared almonds.
