I picked up these matching Limoges serving pieces (footed plate and compote) while on my one-year wedding anniversary trip to Paris. I got lost for hours browsing through Marché aux Puces St-Ouen de Clignancourt, Paris’s most famous flea market at the northern fringe of the city. It is the largest antique market in the world, receiving between 120,000 to 180,000 visitors each weekend.

These vintage pieces have two marks – green “JPL France” mark and “J Pouyat Limoges” mark inside a green wreath. These marks were used by the Jean Pouyat company between 1906 and 1932. The Limoges porcelain sought by collectors today was actually produced by a number of factories in the Limoges region of France from the late 1700s until around 1930.At one point in the 1920s as many as 48 companies were producing wares marked Limoges, according to ceramics expert Mary Frank Gaston in The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Limoges. http://e-limoges.com/makers/pouyat-family.php

The footed plate is great for serving small sweets like petit fours or tea cakes and I use the compote for serving fruit or nuts.