Gifts for pottery lovers

Hand-Thrown Mug in Shale with Rust Chain

by North Carolina pottery

For someone who wants the evidence of the hand visible on the outside of the pot. The same shale body with a rust-glazed band, which is where the maker signature is.

The rust chain is applied by hand around the mug, so its position and thickness change from piece to piece. If you want a gift where the recipient can see it was made rather than printed, this is the version to buy: the decoration itself is the evidence. Same maker and same size as the plain shale mug.

Signed Ocean Blue Studio Vase, 9 in

For a collector, where one identifiable potter's name on the foot is the gift. Individually signed by the potter, nine inches, made in the USA.

A signature on the foot is the clearest provenance evidence a ceramic can carry: it means one identifiable person made this specific pot and put their name on it. That is the thing a factory cannot copy. At sixty-seven dollars it is the right price for a gift that has to be taken seriously without being extravagant.

Embossed Relief Serving Bowl, 10 in

For the one good ten-inch serving bowl most kitchens do not own. A ten-inch handmade bowl with a raised relief surface, at under thirty dollars.

Ten inches is the useful serving size: big enough for a salad for four, small enough to fit in a cupboard. The relief surface catches light on the rim, which is what stops a plain bowl looking like a plain bowl. This is the best-value ceramic on the page.

Ceramica Ana Rafael Small Pottery Bowls, Set of 6

by Ceramica Ana Rafael

For someone who serves olives, dips and salt and keeps using saucers for it. Six wheel-thrown sauce bowls, one of each color, from a pottery studio in Portugal.

Thrown on the wheel, kiln-fired, glazed and fired again per the listing, which is the full stoneware process rather than slip-cast ware with a glaze on top. At about two and a half inches across each bowl holds one thing — a dip, a pinch of salt, a few olives — and six of them cover a table. The maker states lead-free, food safe and dishwasher friendly, and the price is for the full set of six as shown.

Lennymud Chopstick Ramen Bowl

by Lennymud by Lorrie Veasey

For a named maker and a chopstick rest built into the rim. A ramen bowl with a chopstick rest built into the rim, from a named maker.

The chopstick notch is a small piece of thinking that changes how the bowl is used: the sticks stay out of the broth and off the table. Made by an identifiable potter rather than anonymously, which is the second thing we look for after the marketplace itself. Under twenty-five dollars.

Purple Heather Pottery Large Stoneware Spoon Rest, Sapphire Blue

by Purple Heather Pottery

For the object they will use every single day and would never buy themselves. A four-inch stoneware spoon rest from an Indiana studio, big enough for a ladle.

A spoon rest is the object people do not buy for themselves and use constantly once they have one. This one is made from stoneware clay in the maker's Indiana studio, and the listing states it is safe in the dishwasher, microwave and oven, which matters for a piece that lives beside a stove and gets sauce on it daily. Four inches across is large enough for a soup ladle, not only a teaspoon.

Handmade Breakfast and Dipping Set, Turquoise

For a household that eats mezze, tapas or a long breakfast and has no kit for it. A handmade multi-bowl serving set in turquoise, built for small dishes at once.

Serving several small things is a completely different problem from serving one big one, and most kitchens have no equipment for it. A dedicated dipping set solves it and looks intentional doing so. Handmade, colorful, and priced around a hundred dollars, which puts it in serious-gift territory.

Lennymud Book Vase and Pencil Holder

by Lennymud by Lorrie Veasey

For a desk with personality, where the whole point is that it is strange. A decoupaged ceramic in the shape of a paperback, from a named maker.

Decoupage over a thrown form is an unusual combination and the result is genuinely odd-looking, which is the appeal. It works as a pencil cup, a small planter or a vase. Buy it for someone whose desk has personality, not for someone who wants a matched set.