A small and beautifully shaped Provençal ‘Confit Pot’, made from traditional terracotta, and featuring the customary half-glazed exterior. Two elegantly formed side handles complete its practical design. These quintessentially French clay pots had humble beginnings as utilitarian kitchen storage receptacles for all manner of delicious country foodstuffs. Meat or poultry would be cooked long and slowly in its own fat, before being packed tightly into one of these pots, covered, and then buried three-quarters deep in the cool earth floor of a cellar, or placed at the back of a stone-lined larder. In this way, before the advent of refrigerators, stores of otherwise perishable food could be kept in good condition over the long winter months.

France, 19th Century