Vintage Quimper Style Breton Vase and Handled Bowl in Blue and Yellow

A vintage hand painted Breton vase and handled bowl in the Quimper style, both decorated with a woman in traditional coiffe and apron, sponged blue rims and green folk leaves.

The two pieces share the same painter's hand and palette, so together they look like a little Breton breakfast set. On each, a cheerful figure in a red jacket, yellow apron and blue skirt stands among green fronds with a spray of berries beside her, and the vase has a bright folk flower in red and blue on the back. The rims are sponged in cobalt blue, the vase stands on a foot banded in blue and yellow, and the bowl has a yellow band running around the outside.

The bowl is a traditional Breton eared bowl, the kind used across Brittany for cider, soup or café au lait, and like many of these it is painted with a name, here Claude, in brown script on the outside. Both bases are marked as hand painted in Brittany. There is a small nibble to the glaze on the rim of the bowl; please ask if you would like a close up photograph.

The vase measures 14cm tall and 7cm in diameter at the rim. The bowl measures 12cm in diameter, 16cm across the handles and 6cm tall.

Use the vase for a small posy of sweet peas or lavender, and the bowl for wrapped sweets, keys or rings on a dressing table, or set the pair out on a kitchen dresser alongside blue and white china. They would make a lovely present for anyone called Claude or Claudie, a reminder of holidays in Brittany, or a cheerful start to a Quimper collection.